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r 
A STUDY OF SHELLEY 

With Special Reference to His Nature Poetry. 



i 

\. DISSERTATION 

PRESENTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES 

OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY FOR THE 

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. 



BY 

PELHAM EDGAR, 

Associate-Professor of French in Victoria University. 



TORONTO: 
WILLIAM BRIGGS. 

Wesley )3uildini,s. 
1899 

i 

\ ^ 

7. 



A STUDY OF SHELLEY ,.. 



v.- /-' 



With Special Reference to His Nature Poetry. 



DISSERTATION 

PRESENTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES 

OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY FOR THE 

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. 



BY / 

PELHAM EDGAR, 

Associate-Professok of French in Victoria University 



TORONTO: 
WILLIAM BRIGGS. 

Wesi.ev Bcildinos. 
1899 



■4 



A^ 



%(' 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



The paj^es wliich follow ai-e an initial contribution to the 
study of Shelley's Nature poetry. In establishing the existing 
criticism o)i the subject, I have retrained from comment except 
M'ith reference to the question of idealization. An extension 
of this criticism in any thorough sense would have carried me 
much beyond the ordinary limits of an investigation of this 
kind. It was, therefore, possible nierel}' to indicate the 
direction which the stud}' will take (page 20), and to state my 
intention of publishing the results at some future date. I need 
make no apology for the importance which I have attached to 
Shelley's similes as throwing light upon his poetic methods of 
treating Nature ; and in this connection I take the welcome 
opportunity of thanking Professor Bright for many valuable 
suggestions and much kindly aid. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART I.— EXTANT CRITICISM. 

Paor 

<irowtli of love for Nature (I)owden, " Life of Shelley," 165/) ... 7 
Tendency to Idealization (Stephen, in Cornhill, xxxix. ; Whipple, Esiays 

and Bevieivs) ............ 8 

Love of Indefiniteness and Change (Brooke, in Marmillan, xlii.) . . 9 
" " " (Sweet, in "Shelley Societj- Papers," 

I., Part II 13 

Power to Isolate Nature (Brooke) . . . . . . . . 1<> 

Subtleness of Observation (Brooke) ........ 10 

" " (Scudder, in Atlantic Monthly, Lxx.) . . .17 

Primitive Quality or Mythopreic Power (Brooke) . . . . .11 

(Sweet) 13, 15 

Pathetic Fallacy (Brooke ; Qnartarly Renew, CLXiv. ; Roden Noel, in Brit- 
ish Quarterly, Lxxxii. ) . . . . 12 

Plai;e in Development of Nature Poetry (Sweet). ..... 13 

Shelley and Wordsworth (Sweet) ........ 14 

Objectivity (Sweet) ........... 14 

■Cosmic Sympathies (Sweet) . . . . . . . . .14 

Yastness of Landscape (Sweet) . . . . . . . . .14 

(Scudder) 18 

Colour Sense, Analysis of (Sweet) . . . . . . . .16 

" " (Scudder) ........ 17 

Shelley and Coleridge (Sweet) ......... 17 

Shelley and Keats (Scudder) . . . . . . . . .17 

Power to Vitalize Abstractions (Palgrave, " Landscape in Poetry" ) . .18 
Lack of Human Feeling (Palgrave) . . . . . . . .18 

PART II. 

1. Analysis of Similes 19, 21 32 

2. Extension of Existing Criticism ........ 20 

Arrangement of Similes ...... • . . 33-155 



I. 

EXTANT CRITICISM ON SHELLEY'S NATURE 
POETRY. 



Growth of his Love for Nature. 



Professor Dowden, in his "Life of Shelley," refers to Shelley's 
early indifference for natural beauty. 

In the midst of the mountains of Cwm Elan, in 1811, Shelley 
writes to his friend Hogg, " ' This is most divine scenery, but all very 
dull, stale, flat, and unprofitable ; indeed, the place is a very great 
bore.' The poet in Shelley at this time was trammelled and taken 
in the toils by the psychologist and metaphysician. ' (" [Jfe of 
Shelley," L 165.) 

"In the summer of 1811 his delight in mountain and vale and 
stream was tracked and hunted down and done to death by his 
passion for psychological analysis. ' This country of Wales ' (writing 
to Miss Hitchener) ' is exceedingly grand ; rocks piled on each other 
to tremendous heights, rivers formed into cataracts by their projec- 
tions, and valleys clothed with woods, present an appearance of 
enchantment. But why do they enchant 1 Why is it more affecting 
than a plain 1 It cannot be innate ; is it acquired 1 Thus does 
knowledge lose all the pleasure which involuntarily arises by 
attempting to arrest the fleeting phantom as it passes. Vain 
attempt ; like the chemist's ether, it evaporates under our observa- 
tion ; it flies from all but the slaves of passion and sickly sensibility 
who will not analyze a feeling.' And again, 'Nature is here marked 
with the most impressive characters of loveliness and grandeur. 
Once I was tremulously alive to tones and scenes ; the habit of 
analyzing feelings, I fear, does not agree with this. It is 
spontaneous, and when it becomes subject to consideration, ceases to 
exist.' " (" Life of Shelley," I. 167.) 

" ' I am more astonished at the grandeur of the scenery' (letter to 
Hogg) 'than I expected. I do not no?/; much regard it. I have other 
things to think of.' " (" Life of Shelley," I. 168.) 

Contrast with these letters those which he wrote from Keswick 



8 

after his marriage. (Letters of Nov. and Dec, LSll.) Here at 
last we begin to see the genuine Shelley. 

Again, in 1812 we have evidence of the opposite excess of meaning- 
less and delirious rapture, as in the letter to Miss Kitchener when 
her morality had been put in question. 

"You are to my fancy as a thunder-riven pinnacle of rock, firm 
amid the rushing tempest and the boiling surge. Ay, stand forever 
firm, and when our ship anchors close to thee, the crew will cover 
thee with flowers." 

Tendency to Excessive Idealization. 

This forms the substance of Leslie Stephen's contribution to the 
Cornhill Magazine, XXXIX. Compare Quarterly Revieiv, LXIV., and 
Shairp in Eraser's Magazine, N. S. 20. To exemplify "their extreme 
position I quote from Mr. Leslie Stephen. "The materials with 
which he works are impalpable abstractions, where other poets use 
concrete images. . . . When he speaks of natural scenery the 
solid earth seems to be dissolved, and we are in presence of nothing 
but the shifting phantasmagoria of cloudland, the glow of moonlight 
on eternal snow, or the 'golden lightning of the setting sun.'" 

While admitting that the general temper of Shelley's poetry is 
distinctly ideal, it is necessary to make a protest against that partial 
view which removes his work entirely from the sphere of human 
interest, and regards it merely as the meteoric display of an over- 
charged imagination which has never fed upon the concrete realities 
of life. 

Whipple {Essays and Eeviews) makes the following plea on 
Shelley's behalf against the charges of unreality and lack of human 
sympathy : " The predominance of his spiritual over his animal 
nature; the velocity with which his mind, loosed from the 'grasp of 
gravitation,' darted upwards into regions whither slower-pacing 
imaginations could not follow ; the amazing fertility with which he 
poured out crowds of magnificent images, and the profuse flood of 
dazzling radiance, blinding the eye with excess of light, which they 
shed over his compositions, his love of idealizing the world of sense, 
until it became instinct with thought, and infusing into things dull 
and lifeless to the sight and touch the qualities of individual 
existence ; the marvellous keenness of insight with whicli he pierced 
beneath even the refinements of thought, and evolved new materials 
of wonder and delight from a seemingly exhausted subject — all these, 
to a superficial observer, carry with them the appearance of 
unreality. " 

It is important to adjust ourselves aright towards thisi question of 
idealism in Shelley's poetry. W"e must frankly admit at the outset 
that the tendency towards idealism exists in a very marked manner 
in the poems. We find, therefore, that criticism ranges itself into 
two opposing camps. On the one hand, positive common-sense 



9 

opinion, as represented by Leslie Stephen, will find that Shelley 
nourished his imagination with substance too rare and immaterial to 
form the food which a healthy and robust mind should crave as its 
natural diet. On the other hand, more enthusiastic critics like 
Whipple or Roden Noel (see p. 12) assert that his idealism con- 
stitutes. the chief and enduring charm of his poetr}'. It is well here 
to hold a middle position. We may congratulate ourselves as lovers 
of English literature that our poetry with Shelley's advent received 
an imaginative impulse into ethereal regions where wing of poet 
never beat before. But is he, therefore, the " beautiful and inetfec- 
tual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain," of Mat- 
thew Arnold's perverse creating? Shelley's burning zeal for humanity 
would of itself forbid the acceptance of that view in its sweeping 
entirety. In the poet's youth we must admit that his conception of 
humanity is visionary and false, and that his shadowy portraits are 
evasively delusive and vague in outline. But with growing years the 
concrete elements of his poetry gathered strength, and qualities of 
firmness and precision began to show themselves in such abundance 
as to afford the assurance in his future work of a more harmonious 
and equable relation between the ideal and the real world. In 
October, 1821, Shelley wrote to Mr. Grisborne, referring to the most 
idealistic of his poems : " ' The Epipsychidion ' is a mystery ; as to 
real flesh and blood, you know that I do not deal in those articles ; 
you might as well go to a gin-shop for a leg of mutton, as ex- 
pect anything human or earthly from me." But let us first 
eliminate the sportive fun from this statement, and remember that 
within the less than two years that remained to him of life, he had 
produced those admirably human poems, "To Jane," and conceived 
and in part written a play upon the thoroughly human subject of 
"Charles I." In conclusion, we must bear in mind that in a large 
measure the impression of excessive idealism arises from the subtle 
character of the poetic imagery which Shelley employs to light up 
hidden affinities between human emotion and processes of beauty in 
the natural world. In this regard Shelley does not sin alone, and 
might shelter himself, did he require refuge from criticism, behind 
the accepted names of Lamartine or Victor Hugo, whose splendid 
imagery is conceived in a similar spirit, and employed for a similar end. 

Love of Indefiniteness and Change {cf. infra Sweet). 

Rev. Stopford Brooke. Macmillan, XLII. 

To the love of indefiniteness and the love of change, qualities 
embedded in Shelley's temperament, Stopford Brooke attributes the 
leading characteristics of his Nature poetry. " His love of that 
which is indefinite and changeful made him enjoy and describe better 
than any other English poet that scenery of the clouds and sky which 
is indefinite owing to infinite change of appearance. The incessant 



10 

forming and unforming of the vapours which he describes in the last 
verse of ' The Cloud,' is that which he most cared to paint. Words- 
worth often draws, and with great force, the aspect of the sky, and 
twice, with great elaboration, in ' The Excursion ' ; but it is only a 
momentary aspect, and it is mixed up with illustrations taken from 
the works of men, with the landscape of the earth below where men 
are moving, with his own feelings about the scene, and with moral or 
imaginative lessons. Shelley, when he is at work on the 
Power to gijy^ troubles it with none of these human matters,* and 
Nature ^^ describes not only the momentary aspect, but also the 

change and progress of the sunset or the storm. And he 
does this with the greatest care, and with a characteristic attention 
to those delicate tones and half-tones of colour which resemble the 
subtle imaginations and feelings he liked to discover in human 
nature, and to which he gave form in poetry," 

There follow references in detail to the more celebrated cloud 
studies at dawn or sunset or during storm to be found in the poems. 
Of the dawn in the opening of "Prometheus, II.," he says: "The 
changes of colour, as the light increases in the spaces of pure sky 
and in the clouds, are watched and described with 
q" precise truth ; the slow progress of the dawn, during a 

tJQ„_ ioiig time, is noted down line by line, and all the move- 

ment of the mists and of the clouds 'shepherded by the 
slow, unwilling wind.' Nor is that minuteness of observation want- 
ing which is the proof of careful love. Shelley's imaginative study 
of beauty is revealed in the way the growth of the dawn is set before 
us by the waxing and waning of the light of the star, as the vapours 
rise and melt before the morn. The storms are even Ijetter than the 
sunsets and dawns. . . . Criticism has no voice when it thinks 
that no other poet has ever attempted to render, with the same 
absolute loss of himself, the successive changes, minute by minute, 
of such an hour of tempest and of sunrise. We are alone with 
Nature ; I might even say, we see Nature alone with herself." 
Then follows an enthusiastic analysis of the " Ode to the West 
Wind." 

Also, to his love of the indefinite and changeful, Stopford Brooke 
attributes Shelley's power of describingvast landscapes (e.^., "Euganean 
Hills," dOJf'; " Alastor," 550//), and his delight in the intricacy of 
forest scenery (" Recollection," 9f, " Alastor," 420^', " Rosalind, "^ 
95//; "Prometheus," II. ii. and IV. IMf. 

Foiver to Isolate JVature {cf. infra Sweet). 

Stopford Brooke proceeds to discuss Shelley's treatment of Nature 
in as far as it was affected by his lack of a definite idea concerning 
the source of Nature. " Again, just because Shelley had no wish to 

* Vidt Sweet. " Shelley Society Papers," I. Pt. II. 



11 

conceive of Nature as involved in one definite thought, he had the 
power of conceiving the life of separate things in Nature with 
astonishing individuality. When he wrote of the Cloud, or of 
Arethusa, or of the Moon, or of the Earth, as distinct existences, he 
was not led away from their solitary personality by any universal 
existence in which they were merged, or by tYe necessity of adding to 
these any tinge of humanity, any elements of thought or love, such as 
the Pantheist is almost sure to add. His imagination was free to 
realize pure Nature, and the power by which he does this, as well as 
the work done, are quite unique in modern poetry. Theology, with 
its one Creator of the universe; Pantheism, with its 'one spirit's 
plastic stress ' ; Science, with its one Energy, forbid the modern poet, 
whose mind is settled into any one of these three views, to see any- 
thing in Nature as having a separate life of its own. He cannot, as 
a Greek could do, divide the life of the air from that of the earth, of 
the cloud from that of the stream. But Shelley, able to loosen him- 
self from all these modern conceptions which unite the various 
universe, could and did, when he pleased, divide and subdivide the 
life of Nature in the same way as a Greek. And this is the cause 
why, even in the midst of wholly modern imagery and a modern 
manner, one is conscious of a Greek note in many passages of his 
poetry of Nature. The following little poem on the Dawn might be 
conceived by a primitive Aryan. It is a Nature myth. 

" ' The pale stars are gone ! 

For the sun, their swift shepherd, 
To their folds them compelling, 
Primitive in the depths of the dawn. 

Quality. Hastes, in meteor- eclipsing array, and they flee 

Beyond his blue dwelling 
* As fawns flee the leopard.' 

"But Shelley's conceptions of the life of these natural things are 
less human than even the Homeric Greek or early Indian poet would 
have made them. They describe the work of nature in tei^ms of 
human act. Shelley's spirits of the earth and moon are utterly 
apart from our world of thought and from our life. Of this class of 
poems, ' The Cloud ' is the most perfect example. It describes the 
life of the Cloud as it might have been a million years before man 
came on earth. The 'sanguine sunrise' and the 'orbed maiden,' the 
moon, who are the playmates of the cloud, are pure elemental 
beings. ... In Wordsworth's poems we touch the human 
heart of flowers and birds. In Shelley's, we touch ' Shapes that 
haunt Thought's wildernesses.' Yet it is quite possible, though we 
cannot feel affection for Shelley's Cloud or Bird, that they are both 

* Compare also Sweet's consideration of Shelley in his myth making 
capacity (" Shelley Society Papers," I. Pt. II., lide infra), and see Quarterly 
Review, CLXIV. 



12 

truer to the actual fact of things than Wordsworth made his birds 
and clouds.* Strip off the imaginative clothing from 'The Cloud,' 
and science will support every word of it. Let the sky-lark sing, 
let the flowers grow, for their own joy alone. In truth, what sym- 
pathy have they, what sympathy has nature with man 1 

The Pathetic Fallacy. 

" The other side of Shelley's relation to nature is a remarkable 
contrast to this statement. When he was absorbed in his own 
being, and writing poems which concerned himself alone, he makes 
nature the mere image of his own feelings, the creature of his mood." 

In this connection reference must be made to the Quarterly Re- 
vietv, CLXIY., and to the British Quarterly, LXXXII. (Hon. Roden 
Noel). 

Quarterly Review, CLXIV. : 

His own moods . . . formed no permanent essential part of 
himself ; he could, without eflfort, transfer them to Nature. 
The identity of feeling, which he thus establishes between himself 
and Nature, is as fascinating as it is peculiar. Yet it is certainly a 
sign of weakness. In " Alastor," for instance, he reads into his sur- 
roundings his own pensive and melancholy life. Autumn sighs in 
the sere woods, the grass shivers at the touch of the poet's foot ; 
his own hair sings dirges in the wind. No man whose personality is 
strongly marked, can thus transfer himself to the natural world. 
In Shelley, the sense of personality was dimmed by the absence of 
will. He never learned to distinguish between his own feelings and 
those of others ; but in his later poetry he shakes off the excessive 
morbidity of "Alastor," . . . and no longer reads his own misery 
into the aerial merriment of the wind, the wave and the bird. The 
contrast offers a significant proof of the steady development of the 
stronger sides of his character. 

British Quarterly, liXXXII. (Hon. Roden Noel) : 

Proceeding from the assertion that, in order to arrive at a satis- 
factory idea of nature, science and poetry are alike necessary, the 
essayist continues to oppose Ruskin's effort "to distinguish the 
representation of Nature as she is, which he ascribes to Homer and 
to Scott among ourselves, and the representation of her as she only 
appears to our distorting emotions. That seems to me a misleading 
distinction, because what Nature in herself, apart from our minds is, 
we do not accurately know ; we can see her only as slie appears to 
us by virtue of the constitution of our faculties, senses, understand- 
ing, emotion, and imagination. Therefore, I cannot admit that 
there is a true nature, which the man of science and the land-sur- 
veyor see, but a false nature, which the person of delicate suscepti- 

* Vide infra (p. 12) Roden Noel on the distinction between scientific and 
poetic truth. 



13 

bilities and the poet suppose themselves to see. . . . There is no- 
more reason why those higher faculties should be excluded from their 
share and function in the revelation of truth than there is why the 
senses and the understanding should be excluded. . . . Hence^ 
I cannot enter into Mr. Ruskin's preference of Scott over Shelley 
as a poet, which is founded on this distinction between them.* . . . 
What would Shelley's 'Alastor' be without the magniticent 
scenery of mountain and stream amid which he moves onward to the 
close 1 They are one. They have joined hands and interpret one 
another. The result of the poet'.s meditation is neither man 
alone, nor nature alone, but some fair spiritual child of their 
espousals. This, I maintain, is somewhat distinctively new and 
precious added to our intellectual and emotional treasure." 

Sweet. " Shelley Society Papers," I. Pt. II. 

This is the most elaborate study of Shelley's nature poetry that 
has hitherto appeared. 

Shelley's Place iii the Development of Nature Poetry. 

The author briefly surveys the wide field of world literatures 

where the nature idea finds its inception and development. The 

The Vedic nature poetry is important in connection with 

Vedas. Shelley's mythology; "nor in a consideration of Shelley's 

attitude towards nature must we disregard the Teutonic and the 

Celtic elements in his poetry. To the former we 

Teutonic and relate his feelinji; for mystery, and to the latter 

Celtic Elements. u ^. ? t i c u i 

we refer the extraordinary keenness or his colour 

faculty. Shelley's description of the imagined ruins of Venice in the 
* Euganean Hills,' with the sea-mew flying above, and the palace-gate 
'toppling, o'er the abandoned sea,' recalls . . . that aspect of Old 
English lyric poetry represented by ' The Wanderer,' and the im- 
pressive fragment known as 'The Ruin.' . . . Shelley heightens- 
the effect, almost as in ' Beowulf,' by 

" ' The fisher on his watery way, 
Wandering at the close of day,' 

hastening to pass the gloomy shore 

" ' Lest thy dead should, from their sleep 
Bursting o'er the starlight deep, 
Lead a rapid masque ot death 
O'er the waters of his path I ' 

" The ' na.tural magic ' of such a description as this is, or, at least,. 
might be, wholly English, wholly Teutonic — strange as such an 
assertion may seem to a critic like Mr. Arnold, whose ideas of the 

* See Ruskin's " Modern Painters," Pt. IV., Vol. III. 



14 

Teutonic spirit are gained from a one-sided contemplation of modern 
German literature at a period when it was still struggling for the 
mastery of the rudiments of style and technique, lost in the barbarism 
of the Thirty Years' War. 

" Shelley's poem ' The Question,' is . . . as purely Celtic both 
in its colour-pictures, . . . and its ethereal unreality and delicate, 
fanciful sentiment. It need hardly be said that this ' Celtic note' in 
tShelley no more proves Celtic race-influence than the ' Greek note ' in 
Keats proves that Keats was of Greek descent. Shelley looks at nature 
with the same»-eyes as an old Celtic poet, because both were inspired 
by the same sky and earth, both loved the same flowers, fields and 
forests." 

After tracing English nature poetry to the first truly modern 
conception in Milton, the writer swiftly passes the intervening period 
and proceeds to a discussion of Shelley's work in closer detail. 

Shelley and Wordsworth. 

" Shelley's real sympathies are with inanimate nature. Here he 
is at home. Here he is unique and supreme. He is indeed ' the poet 
of nature ' in a truer sense than Wordsworth is. AVordsworth is 
really the poet of the homely, the common-place in nature as in man. 
Whatever in nature harmonizes with his own narrow sympathies he 
assimilates and reproduces with a power all his own. . . . Shelley, 
on the other hand, seeks to penetrate into the very heart of nature in 
all her manifestations, without regard to their association with human 
feeling. While in his treatment of man he is all subjectivity, in his 
treatment of nature he is often purely objective. In 
Objectivity, g^^jj g^ poem as 'The Cloud ' there is not only no trace 
of Wordsworthian egotism, but the whole description . . . is as 
remote from human feeling as it could well be, consistent with the 
poetic necessity for personification."* 

Cosmic and Eleinental Sympathies. 'j 

''The range of Shelley's sympathies is bounded only by the 
universe itself. He combines forests, mountains, rivers and seas 
into vast ideal landscapes ; he dives into the depths of 
Vastness of the earth, soars among clouds and storms, and corn- 
Landscape, munes ' with the sphere of sun and moon.' " 

Love of Indefiniteness and Change. X 

" Shelley's love of the changing and fleeting aspects of nature — 

the interest with which he watched the formation of mist and cloud 

> 

* Cf. supra, vStopford Brooke. 

t See also Brandes' " Hauptstromungen," IV., pp. 248/, and Chevi-illon in 
Revne de Paris, June 1st, 1898. 
J Cf. -supra, Stopford Brooke. 



15 

and the shifting hues of dawn and sunset — is, like his sense of 
structure, a natural result of the half-scientitic spirit with which he 
regarded nature, for it is in the changing phenomena of nature that 
real life lies. According to Mr. Brooke, Shelley's love for the changeful 
in nature is the result of the inherent changef ulness of his temperament. 
But of this I can see but little in his life. He was impulsive enough 
— for without impulsiveness he would hardly have been a poet — but 
not fickle or undecided in his feelings and principles. 

«^' Shelley s Mythology and Afythopoeic Faculty. 

[Of. mpra, Stopford Brooke.) 

"Shelley's love of natural phenomena sometimes shows itself in 
naive expressions of delight, and simple comparisons which remind us 
of the nature-poetry of the Veda" (e.g., "Witch of Atlas," XXVII.) 

After referring to the employment of a conventional mythology 
by other poets, the essayist notes it as a characteristic of Shelley that 
he is without a trace of that conventionalism. "He never brings in 
the figures of classical mythology incidentally, but only when they are 
the subject of his poetry, and his handling of them in such cases is 
always fresh and original, as in his 'Hymn to Ajaollo' — the jnost 
perfect reproduction of the spirit of Greek mythology that we have'in 
modern literature. His conception of Jupiter in his 'Prometheus' is 
quite new and original — he makes him the personification of all that 
hinders the free development of the human mind, which latter is 
personified by Prometheus. 

"We see, then, that even where Shelley is trammeled by tra- 
ditional mythology, he reveals something of that myth-making faculty 
in which he stands alone among modern poets — the only one 
who at all approaches him in this respect being his contemporary, 
the Swedish poet, Stagnelius. When Shelley is free to follow his 
own fancy, he instinctively creates nature-myths of a strangely 
primitive type, unlike anything in Greek or the other fully-developed 
mythologies, but showing marked similarity to the personifications of 
Vedas. . . . It is not only Shelley critics who have been struck 
by this characteristic. Mr. Taylor, in his 'Anthropology' (page 290), 
after remarking that the modern poet 'still uses for picturesqueness the 
metaphors which to the barbarian were real helps to express his 
sense,' goes on to quote as an instance the opening lines of 'Queen 
Mab,' . . . and analyzes them as follows : 'Here the likeness of 
death and sleep is expressed by the metaphor of calling them 
brothers; the moon is brought in to illustrate the notion of paleness, 
the dawn of redness; while to convey the idea of dawn shining on the 
sea, the simile of its sitting on a throne is introduced, and its 
reddening is compared on the one hand to a rose, and on the 
other to blushing. Now, this is the very way in which early bar- 
baric man, not for poetic affectation, but simply to find the plainest 



16 

words to convey his thoughts, would talk in metaphors taken from 
nature.'" 

"One of the best examples of Shelley's myth-making faculty is the 
little poem, 'The World's Wanderers' (IV. 51), ... as remote 
as anything can well be from modern thought and sentiment. Its 
imagery and its strange unhuman pathos are alike primitive and 
elemental. The same sympathy with the heavenly bodies in their 
wanderings through space has been expressed by some of the older 
Greek lyiic poets, but the conception of the star's rays as wings can 
hardly be paralleled outside of the 'Veda.'" 

Cloud Mythology — See " Laon," II. v., 'and IX. xxxv. ; "Cloud," 
73 ; Prom. II. i. 145. 

Cloud Comparisons — See "Summer and Winter"; " Hlleas," 
957 ; " Witch," XLVIIL, LIT, LV. ; Liberty, 5. 

Shelley's Colour Sense. 

[Vide infra, Atlantic Monthly, LXX.) 

Quotations and references are made under a variety of rubrics. 

Flashing and intermittent light. 

•"Prom." 11. iii. 30 and IV. 182; "Epips." 546; "Dejection," 
II. ; " Orpheus," 59. 

Alternations of light and shade. 

"Laon," II. xlix. and XII. xxxvi. ; " Athanase," II. xiii. and 
IL 1.; "Rosal." 102; "Prom." L 27 and 1. 678; "Sens. 
Plant," II. 25; " Alast." 310. 

A tmospheric effects. 

"Prom." L 82, IL i. 10 and IL iii. 74; "Laon," IlL iii.; 
"Rosal," 729; "Dejection,"!.; " Witch," XXXVIL 

Light see7i through water. 

"Witch," XXVIIL 
Light seen through foliage. 

"Laon," II. i., VII. xi., VIII. xxx. and XII. xviii. ; ' Prom."^ 
II. ii. 75; "Sens. Plant," I. 23 and I. 43; "Epips." 502. 

Transmitted light. 

"Letter to Maria Gisborne," 123. 
Refracted light. 

" Alast." 334 ; " Laon," VII. 20. 

Reflected light or colour. 

"Alast." 352; "Laon," I. xx.. III. xii. and XII. xviii; "Prom." 
L 467, L 743 and II. iii. 28; "Witch," XXV. : "Recollec- 
tion," V. 



17 

Objects reflected in water, 

"Alast." 200, 213, 406, 457, 494; " Laon," III. xi. and VI. 
xxxiii. ; "Prom." III. iv. 78 and IV. 193; "Sens. Plant," 
I. 18; "West Wind," 111. 33-35; "Invitation," 50 ; "Recol- 
lection," 53. Also compare "Prom." II. i. 17. with Wordsworth, 
"Peele Castle, ' and cf. Shelley, " Evening," III. ; 'Liberty," 
VI ; " Witch," LIX. 

Colour Contrast. 

"Alast." 137, 584; "Rosal." 782; "Prom." III. iii. 139; 
" Laon," I. xi. ; "Witch," X. ; " Marenghi," XIIL 

Shelley and Coleridge. 

" Coleridge's affinity to Shelley is shown especially in his descrip- 
tions of transmitted light and colour, . . . and in his elaborate 
pictures of reflection in water. . . . But Coleridge does not 
appear to have, any more than Wordsworth or Milton, any examples 
of reflected light or colour as distinguished from the reflection of 
definite objects : Shelley's picture of the ' lake-reflected sun ' illumin- 
ing the ' yellow bees in the ivy bloom ' seems to be entirely his own. 

. . The similarity between the two poets (Coleridge and S.) 
in their treatment of light does not seem to be the result of imita- 
tion on the part of the younger poet : the agreement is in spirit, not 
in detail. The love of light was instinctive in both, and was fostered 
by their surroundings. Coleridge learnt to observe and love the 
effects of transmitted and reflected light in the shady lanes, and by 
the rivulets and pools of his native Devon, while Shelley learnt the 
same lessons in the woods of Marlowe and in his boat on the Thames." 

Colour Sense — (^Continued). 

\ / An admirable study of Shelley's artistic use of colour is contained 
l/in Atlantic Monthly, LXX. (V. D. Scudder), The analysis follows. 

Colour in Keats and Shelley. 

It is only in the nineteenth century that the poets have become 
great colourists ; and no one but Keats can in this respect rival the 
greatness of Shelley. If Keats has more force of colour, Shelley has 
more purity. Keats' colouring is opaque, though brilliant, like that 
of a butterfly's wing ; Shelley's is translucent, like an opal. Ruskin 
tells us that nature always paints her loveliest hues on aqueous or 
crystalline matter ; and the very law of nature seems to be the 
instinct of Shelley. 

Colour in " Prometheus Unbound." 

" But the colour in ' Prometheus Unbound ' has a higher 

function than to vivify the detail of the poem, or to give us a series 

of exquisite vignettes. The drama, by the use of light and colour, 

as shaped to an organic whole. It shows the harmonious evolution 

2 



18 

of a central theme ; and this evolution is symbolically presented 
through the progress of the new cosmic day." The writer develops 
this thesis skilfully and at some length in the remainder of the 
essay. Referring in more general terms to Shelley's nature poetry — 
"It is in the treatment of nature that the distinctive powers of 
Shelley's poetry are most clearly seen. The ' Prometheus ' is in one 
sense a nature-drama. The Soul of Nature is herself one of the 
personages. We are transported from the wildest mountain scenery 
to the luxuriance of tropical valleys. Sky-cleaving peaks, glaciers, 
precipices, vast rivers, lakes, forests, meet us on every page. We have 
a sense that the drama is for the most part enacted on the heights, 
where the air is pure from earthly taint, and heaven and earth seem 
to blend. The sky scenery, above all, with its pomp and gloom of 
storm, its sunrise and sunset, its ' flocks of clouds in spring's delight- 
ful weather,' is as great as can be found in English poetry; yet the 
bold outline work, the strong and broad treatment of 
Vastness i\^q vaster aspects of nature, reveal the poet less than 

p. f." the renderings of delicate detail, of fleeting sights and 

Delicacy. , , <= . ' & » 

sounds lost on a grosser perception. 

See "Prom." I. 44-47; II. i. 83-86; II. v. 11-14; III. ii. 4-9; 
III. ii. 25-28; IV. 180-184 ; IV. 431-436. 

The sensitiveness and passion for change which we have seen to be 
the notes of Shelley's temperament, are evident in every one of these 
passages. (Cf. supra, Stopford Brooke.) " It is doubtful whether 
any poet before our century, whatever his equipment, could so 
closely and finely have rendered the minuti;\^ of nature." 

The latest systematic presentation in English criticism of Shelley's 
nature poetry is contained in Francis Palgrave's ' Landscape in 
Poetry,' Macmillan &. Co., 1897. The treatment is sketchy and 
unsatisfactory, and, if anything, hostile in tone. He objects that 
Shelley's landscape " is inevitably limited and dyed by the colours of 
his mind ; . . . that no true poet of any age has left us so gigantic 
a mass of wasted effort, exuberance so Asiatic, such oceans (to speak 
out) of fluent, well-intended platitude." His shorter and chiefly 
his later lyrics show him to the best advantage. " Yet even here at 
times the matter is attenuated as the film of the soap-bubble, gaining 
through its very thinness its marvellous iridescent beauty. ' Shelley 
seems to go up and burst,' was Tennyson's remark on a passage of 
this character. 

" In his best moods, where he has focussed his eye 
Vivifying ^^^ j^-g subject, it has that strange power of vitalizing 
abstractions and things of nature on which Macaulay 
has commented in his brilliant manner. 

" We must not look in his landscape for human feeling 

Lack of interfused as in Coleridge's, for the chord of true passion, 

uman ^^^ ^£ ^j_^^ humanly pathetic, Shelley could scarcely strike; 

nor again for Nature moralized and spiritualized, as by 



19 

Wordsworth ; Shelley's landscape is essentially descriptive, but raised 
to a life of its own by an imaginative power of perhaps unsurpassed 
pure vividness, and that personifying habit which we have just 
noticed." 

Literal truth and fidelity of description is accorded to the land- 
scape in the " Euganean Hills," and to a few passages from his later 
lyrics. 



II. 

I have now given the substance of the most important studies on 
the subject of Shelley's nature poetry, and in the course of this 
presentation have found it necessary to combat only the extreme 
views which obtain with reference to the poet's idealistic tendencies. 
To obtain a satisfactorily complete idea of Shelley's nature poetry, 
the existing criticism has to be extended and supplemented in many 
directions. With this end in view, I have endeavoured 

1. To bring to bear upon the problem an entirely new method of 
examination (namely, the study of the Similes). 

2. To supplement investigations such as Sweet's, whose only fault 
lies in their incompleteness. 



1. A STUDY OF SHELLEY'S SIMILES. 

I here advance a large amount of material, arranged in such a 
manner as to throw abundant light upon Shelley's treatment of 
beauty in the external world, to illustrate his preferences and the 
individual peculiarities of his genius, and to exhibit his marvellous 
skill in adapting the world of nature to the elucidation of subtle 
intellectual states. 

The wealth of Shelley's figurative language, and the extraordinary 
range of his similes have stirred the wonder of critics, and led them 
to affirm in his poetry a brilliancy that blinds and dazzles with 
excess. I wish, on the contrary, to aflirm their artistic perfection, 
as constantly subordinated to some dsfined and conscious aesthetic 
impulse. 

Shelley's own opinion of the nature of his powers will serve 
as a valuable initial commentary upon this portion of my work. 
"And in this I have long believed that my power consists in sym- 
pathy, and that part of the imagination which relates to sympathy 
and contemplation. I am formed, if for anything not in common 



20 

with the herd of mankind, to apprehend minute and remote distinc- 
tions of feeling, whether relative to external nature or the living beings 
which surround us, and to communicate the conceptions which result 
from considering either the moral or the material universe as a 
whole." — Letter to Godivin, December 11th, 1817. 

It is clear, then, that we have in a systematic presentation of the 
similes an important factor which has never entered into the con- 
sideration of Shelley's Nature poetry ; and in the light of his figura- 
tive language we may read the subtler operations of his mind, and 
see the paths upon which it was prone to run, in as far as human, 
limitations grant us such an insight. 



2. EXTENSION OF EXISTING CRITICISM.* 

The following investigations are extended : 

(a) Love oj Indefiniteness and the Love of Change. 

In these characteristics of Shelley's genius, Stopford Brooke 
assumes to discover the key to his philosophy of Nature. The 
analysis is skilfully conducted, and it is impossible to dispute the fact 
that Shelley's changeful temperament is mirrored faithfully in his 
poetry. But while not actually challenging these results, it is 
possible to show that they are misapplied. It seemed necessai-y, 
therefore, to investigate afresh Shelley's philosophy of Nature, to 
connect it with his theory of Beauty, and to point at least to some 
permanent and abiding ideas which give character and solidity to 
Shelley's work in this direction. 

(Ij) Shelley's Place in the- Development of Nature Poetry. 

Sweet has made a general approach to this subject. In connec- 
tion with Shelley's philosophy of Nature, more special reference than 
in Dr. Sweet's essay must be made to Shelley in his relation to 
Wordsworth, and in a lesser degree to Coleridge, Scott, Byron, and 
Keats. 

(c) Colour in Shelley's Poetry. 

This has already received treatment in Section I. It only 
remains, after the analysis of the colour similes given below, to 
supplement the categories which Sweet has established. 

* Note. —This second section of the study, comprising II. 2 («), (6), and 
(c), will be shortly published. 



21 

1. ANALYSIS OF THE SiMlLES. 

Tlie total number of similes in Shelley's poetry is 1989. The 
above collection contains 1720, all of which have a bearing upon 
appearances of the external world, whether developed for the sake of 
their own beauty or subordinated to the illumination of subtle 
mental operations. This fact is in itself significant. 

I now pass to a consideration of the various classes of simile in 
some detail. The basis of arrangement is not a merely artificial clas- 
sification, but is founded upon the most prominent characteristic in 
every case ; though all are broadly included within the generic title 
of Nature Similes. 

(1) Similes of Colour.* 

The similes in which colour is the inHftt prominent feature number 
425, whereas colour as a more subdued element may be observed in 
many more. Comparing this result proportionately with the similes 
arising from other senses than that of sight, we find that Similes of 
Sound amount to 210, while Similes of Odour naturally sink to 12. 
Examining the Similes of Colour more closely they fall into various 
natural subdivisions. 

(a) Cloud Colour. 

It satisfies our preconceived idea of Shelley's poetry to discover 
that 59 similes involve more or less careful and beautiful cloud 
descriptions (always bearing in mind that many admirable cloud 
similes occur in other categories). By reference to 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 13, 

52, 59, we gain an insight into Shelley's habitual 
Descriptions method of describing human (or spiritual) forms. 
women Here his tendency to idealization mars the concrete 

presentation of form and feature. His women are 
filmy shapes of diaphanous vapour, and even his men are effeminate 
creations entirely wanting in masculine vigour, and impelled alone by 
the fierce unrest of the spiritual flame within. To confirm this 
statement further reference should be made to the following pas- 
sages in the poems. 

Descriptions of Women. 

See "Alastor," 175/; "Laon," II. xxiii.,^11. xxix., V". xxiii/, V. xliv. 

Descriptions of Men (or male spirits). 

"Laon," I. xlii., I. Ivii., IV. xxix.; "Rosalind," 909/; 1009/'; 
" Pi'ince Ath." passim. 

Shelley's descriptions of men are certainly vitiated by this ex- 
cessive idealism. Contrast, for example, the brawn and muscle of 
Goethe's "Prometheus," or of Tennyson's ''Geraint" — 

* The analysis which follows is in part an extension of .Sweet's categories 
<see pp. 16, 17). 



22 

" Who, moving, cast the coverlet aside, 
And bared the knotted column of his throat. 
The massive square of his heroic breast, 
And arms on which the standing muscle sloped, 
As slopes a wild brook o'er a little stone, 
Running too vehemently to break upon it. 
And Enid woke and sat beside the couch. 
Admiring him, and thought within herself. 
Was ever man so grandly made as he?" — 

or Kipling's unconscious heroes with honest sweat of toil on their 
begrimed faces. The modern world has done with men, however 
eloquent their eyes and gestures, who weep and faint with weariness. 
They are a survival of seventeenth century French sentimentality, 
utterly alien to the English temperament, and as happily buried in the 
past as the Satanism of Byron's breed of destiny-branded heroes. 

Idealism, which was the weakness of Shelley's masculine figures, 
is an element that intensifies the beauty of his women. They are not 
wholly abstractions of cloud and vapour. The general impression 
which their description conveys may be bewildering, but only because 
the images which denote it are merged in the Ideal of Beauty, — 

" Till they are lost, and in that Beauty furled 
Which penetrates and clasps and fills the world. 
Scarce visible from extreme loveliness." 

Clouds in repose or slow-moving (or vapours). 

1, 3, 16, 17, 23, 30; cf. also in other categories 225, 1290, 1296, 
1363, 1695. 

Cloiids in sivift motion (or vapours). 

9, 13, 18. 31, 36, 37, 39, 47, 53; cf. also 1364, 1373, 1477, 1485, 
1487, 1491, 1497, 1534, 1567, 1578, 1706. 

A pregnant contrast between Shelley and Wordsworth is afforded 
by their respective descriptions of clouds, Shelley preferring habitu- 
ally to revel in their swiftness, and Wordsworth to rejoice in their 
deep repose. The strenuous palpitating swiftness of Shelley is 
certainly never attained by the elder poet, though he has his moments 
of keen participation in the ardours of rapid motion, as witness his 
noble poem, "To the Clouds." 

The love of speed was rooted in Shelley's temperament (as the 
similes of swiftness attest), and the clouds he paints are suffused also 
with an intensity and purity of colour which no English poet has- 
ever approached. 

Intensity of Colour in Cloud Similes. 

5, 18, 19, 26, 36, 43, 50. 
Colour Contrast, 5, 12, 13, 21. 
Transmitted Light, 33, 34, 38, 40, 45, 46, 51, 55. 



23 

(b) Water Colour — 36 similes. 

Transmitted Light, 65, 71 ; Reflected, 71, 95 ; Intensity, 61, 90 ; 
Contrast, 61, 63, 74, 91. 

(c) The Sun — -31 similes. 

Transmitted, 124; Intensity, 100, 118, 120, 121 ; Contrast, 113. 

{d) The Moon — 22 similes. 

Transmitted, 135, 136, 141, 148; Reflected, 129, 142; Intensity, 
133, 139, 145 ; Contrast, 128. 

(e) The Stars — 37 similes, and see under (j). 

Transmitted, 159, 167, 168; Reflected, 149, 154; Intensity, 158 
(in context), 161, 162, 176; Contrast, 168; Motion, 173. 

178 deserves attention, where the light of a star is compared to 
the scent of a jonquil. One sense interpreted by another. 

(/) Lightning — 11 similes. 

Transmitted, 187; Reflected, 192; Contrast, 187, 194. 

(g) Meteors, Comets — 14 similes. 
(A) The Sky — 19 similes. 

Reflected, 227; Intensity, 215. 
{i) Fire — 23 similes. 

Intensity, 237, 239, 244, 247, 248. 
(J) Eyes — 30 similes. 
Basis of comparison : 

Fire, 253; Stars, 254, 255, 258, 263, 264 (KB.), 276, 277, 
282; Meteors, 256; Moon (-light), 257, 275; Sunset, 267; 
Dawn, 262; Night, 271, 278; Lightning, 259; <S'%, 265, 273; 
Dove, 266; ^Zee;^ 260; Death, 261. 
Intensity, 267 (N.B.) ; Contrast, 263, 267. 

(A;) Darkness, Shadow — 32 similes. 

Note especially for their boldness, 295 and 297. 

(I) White Light — 18 similes. 
Basis of comparison : 

Snow, 315, 316, 317, 318, 321, 324, 329, 331. 
Silver, 319; Frost, 322. 
Gruesome in character, 323, 327. 

(m) General Colour Similes — 93 similes. 

Transmitted or Suflused colours, 352, 359, 361, 391, 393, 395, 

407, 412, 417. In other categories, 548. 
Reflected, 334, 362; Intensity, 413 (N.B.) 
Contrast, 335, 338, 347, 365, 377, 412, 413 (N.B.) 
Light expressed in terms of music, 357 {cf. supra, 178). 



24 

(2) Similes of Sound — 210 similes. 

Many points of interest arise in this category to admirably illustrate 
the range of Shelley's sympathies. As Sweet in his suggestive study 
observes : " The range of Shelley's sympathies is bounded only by 
the universe itself. He combines forests, mountains, rivers, and seas 
into vast ideal landscapes ; he dives into the depths of the earth, 
soars among clouds and storms, and communes with the sphere of sun 
and moon." So here we find a Byronic exultation in the stormy 
symphonies which are the voice of nature's unrest, and a subtle 
penetrating sympathy, to which Byron's coarser-fibred spirit was not 
attuned, for the delicate eddies of sound that steal upon the sense in 
an hour of calm. 

Thunder affords the basis of comparison in three unremarkable 
similes, 460, 462, 539. 

Earthquake., 439, 476, and 474, where the hush between two 
earthquakes symbolizes the awed silence of a multitude. 

Volcano. The cry of a multitude bursts like a volcano's voice 
in 464. 

Tempest ; and wild outbursts of sound are compared in 564 to a 
tempestuous wind tearing the sluggish clouds, and less successfully in 
430 (from an early poem) to the weird notes of a wind among the 
trees. 440, 466, 634, describe the silence in the pauses of tempest. 

The similes descriptive of the human voice abound in 
uman (^jg^^^ate perception. The bases of comparison for the 
human voice are as follows : Bird, 436, 602 ; Wind in trees, 
438, (446); Wind among flowers, 481; Dying Wind, 458, 471 
Wind on water, 427 ; Wind in ruins, 429, 612, 626, (rf. 873) ; Wind. 
428; Flame, 482; (Words = Fire, 563; Embers, 572); Ice, 470 ' 
Stream, 454, 455, 457 ; Waves on sand, 480 ; Music, 434, 452, 483 
484, 505, 506, 587; Water/alls, 433; Light, 619; Shout = Sea, 477 
Sound = Sea, 478. 

The characteristic manner, already illustrated, of expressing one 
sense in terras of another is illustrated as follows: Sound = Sight, 
with generally bright light superadded, 441, 449, 533, 548, 549, 557, 
574, 575, and see above where Foice = Flame, Fire, Light, etc. 
>S'omic^= Odours. 467, 488 (N.B.), 536 (N.B.) ; Gruesome, Ui, ibO, 
620, 622. 

(3) Similes of Odour — 12 similes. 

The sense of smell, as lower on the intellectual plane, contains 
naturally few similes. A few additional ones are contained in the 
preceding category. 

641 and 642 are more luxuriantly sensuous in character than is 
usual with Shelley, and remind one rather of Keats, or of Tennyson 
in his studiously sensuous mood as in the " Lotos Eaters." 



(4) Simile and Metaphor — 184 similes. 

In this category simile and metaphor are combined with high 
poetic eflfect, the simile, as a rule, rising out of the body of the 
metaphor. This gives to the figurative expression, as a whole, a 
volume of sustained power, which is frequently lacking in the lighter 
individual similes. Occasionally, as in 649, the simile seems to 
inspire the metajDhor which follows as its natural completion. So 
also 704, 712-13, 714, 716, 717, 825. 

Examples of the reverse process where the metaphor is completed 
by a simile : 

653. Hope clings like ice. (In cases like this it is, however, 
almost impossible to say whether the metaphorical idea of "hope 
clinging" came first into the poet's mind, and the simile expression 
" like ice " came as a natural complement to the idea, or whether, as 
the order of words in the original suggests, the simile inspired the 
metaphor. The former would be the more natural poetic sequence of 
ideas.) 

660. Agony is tvorn like a robe. 

661. In the wildey^ness of years her memory appears like a green 
home. 

Noteworthy similes in this category. 

690-1. (Imitated from "Calderon." See Shelle3r's note.) Here a 
condition in Nature is elucidated and amplified by human analogy. 
This reversal of the natural process of simile (from human to natural) 
is not uncommon in Shelley, though rare in other poets. 

Observe, as representing many other's, the magnificent similes, 
712-3. 

Other fine similes in this category are 717, 718, 719, 731, 732, 
745, 746, 751, 761-2 (note the vigour and intensity, and also the 
element of colour), 765 (cloud imagery), 766, 785, 791 (cloud imagery). 
813 contains the gruesome element so common in Shelley. 

The similes in this category almost all repay study for the pene- 
trating insight which they reveal into beautiful processes in nature, 
presented not alone for their own sake, but as revealing the significance 
of human conditions. 

In 738 the simile and metaphor are not in harmony — ' a blot upon 
the page of fame' being likened to a 'serpent's path.' The analogy 
is too remote to be successful. 

(5) Double Similes — 183 similes. 

It will at once be evident that some of these partake of the 
characteristics of other categories, as for example, 885, 887, which 
might have been classified under Simile and Metaphor. 

But taking even a doubtful example like 885, it will be seen 
that there is a certain parallelism of structure which justifies its 
insertion among double similes. " As a golden chalice catches the 



26 

bright wine which else had sunk into the thirsty dust, so is my 
overflowing love gathered into thee." (as) Asia : chalice (so) I : the 
wine. 

This parallelism or double-thread of simile will be revealed by an 
analj'sis of any simile under this rubric. Some examples, as 839, 
879, etc., are much condensed, and a very few, as 841, 962, are obscure 
from mere crudeness. 

Gruesome Similes, 836, 850, 939. 

Acciimulative Similes, 859/, 881/, 919/ 983/ 989/ 998/ 

These similes are very characteristic of Shelley. Readers of 
" Trelawny's Record " will remember his interesting relation of the 
poet's own account of his methods of composition. " When my brain 
gets heated with thought it soon boils, and throws off images and 
words faster than I can skim them off. In the morning, when cooled 
down, out of the rude sketch, as you justly call it, I shall attempt a 
drawing." This swift succession of imagery is also found apart from 
the double similes; e.g., 76/ 176/ (and indeed throughout the 
" Triumph of Life," which is a vast succession of accumulated similes), 
290/, 297/ 318/; 513/ (this is of the type Double Simile, but in- 
cluded under Similes of Sound), 545/ 603/ Also see "Hymn to 
Intellectual Beauty," I. ; and as a remoter instance of the same rush 
of figurative thought, observe the accumulated metaphors in " Epip- 
sychidion," 21^! 

(6) Homeric Similes — 49 similes. 

These are merely double similes of a more extended and pictorial 
character. As in the Homeric simile proper, the analogy is not 
maintained through every detail of the comparison. On the 
contrary, there need be only one essential point of contact, but the 
artistic impulse continues to develop a sustained poetic image, 
wrought out seemingly for the sake of its own beauty, and rather as 
an imaginative than as an intellectual stimulus. The type is a familiar 
one to the student of the classical poets, or even of our own classically 
minded poets, Milton, Tennyson, Arnold. E.g., " Iliad," IV. : "As 
when on the echoing beach the sea wave lifteth itself up in serried 
array before the driving west wind ; out on the mid deep doth it first 
raise its head, and then breaketh upon the land, and roareth aloud, 
and goeth with arched crest around the promontories, and speweth 
afar the foaming brine ; even thus in close array moved the hosts of 
the Greeks without pause to battle." 

As an example of finely- wrought similes of this order in Shelley's 
poetry, reference should be made to 1015, 1036, 1050, 1058, 1059, 
1060. 

These are very successful similes in their kind, though not 
fashioned so carefully after the classical model, as certain famous 
examples in Milton, Tennyson, or Arnold. Some, as 1018, might 
easily have been classified as Double Similes. 

Gruesome, 1060. 



27 

(7) Human to Natural — 145 similes. 

" The imagery which I have employed will be found, in many 
instances, to have been drawn from the operations of the human 
mind, or from those external actions by which they are expressed. 
This is unusual in modern poetry, although Dante and Shakespeare 
are full of instances of the same kind : Dante indeed more than any 
other poet, and with greater success. But the Greek poets, as 
writers to whom no resource of awakening the sympathy of their 
contemporaries was unknown, were in the habitual use of this power ; 
and it is the study of their works (since a higher merit would 
probably be denied me), to which I am willing that my readers should 
impute this singularity." (^Shelley, Preface to ^^ Prometheus Unhoimd") 

The similes in this category require no special comment. 

(8) Human to Human — 112 similes. 

Of these I reserve only seven as containing an element of Nature 
description. 

(9) Human to Animal (or the reverse) — 72 similes. 

Romanticism implies for English poetry primarily a vast widening 
of the sympathies which embrace now not only man in all the hidden 
recesses of his nature, but extend to a compassionate pity for the 
dumb creation, and an emotional love for the inanimate world of 
natural beauty. Tn all these respects Shakespeare had foreshadowed 
the modern attitude of mind, but after his death until Thomson, or 
even until Cowper, we do not find these qualities again united. 

Shelley's treatment of the animal world is not entirely sympa- 
thetic. His attitude of compassion or the reverse is determined by 
the one significant fact as to whether the animal in question is 
carnivorous or not. This fact in itself expresses Shelley's deep- 
rooted disgust for flesh-eating in man or beast. 

Thus he speaks of doys habitually in a tone of loathing, and 
makes them the symbol of a base and treacherous character, e.g., 
1223, 1229, 1255, 1271. 

Even in 1251, 1282, where his sympathies for the oppressed in 
any form might have influenced him, he abates nothing of his 
habitual loathing for the friend of man. A reference to Ellis' "Con- 
cordance" will give other examples of Shelley's antipathetic feeling for 
dogs. (See also Hounds.) The only notable exception occurs in 
"Rosalind," 1069/ 

This same reason for his hatred of dogs inspires his sentiments 
towards the fiercer wild animals, e.g., Wolvi-s, 1226, 1457, (see Ellis), 
Tigers, (see Ellis). This hostile treatment of beasts of prey need not, 
however, astonish us. It is only within the last few years that the 
splendid creatures of the jungle or the desert have entered as an 
element of beauty into artistic creation, and Leconte de Lisle and 



28 

Rudyard Kipling have alone sought to enter sympathetically into the 
meaning that lurks within their savage and unshaped intelligence. 

With Fish the same principle holds. Shark, Dog-fish, 1279. 

Serpents. Here the symbolical idea attaching to the serpent in- 
tervenes, and by a capricious reversal of Biblical teaching, Shelley 
identifies in "Laon and Cythna" the Serpent with the Spirit of Good. 
On the whole, however, he regards the serpent as inspiring loathing 
or disgust, e.g., 1215, 1218, 1220, 1221, 1227, 1281. 

Turning now to animals for which Shelley manifests compassion 
or affection, we find that 71ie Horse is never harshly mentioned. In 
1240 and 1260 a sympathetic feeling for the horse suffering oppression 
is shown (contrast Dogs above), and readers of "Laon and Cythna" will 
not forget the vigorous description of the Tartarean horse that bears 
Cythna and her lover to a refuge from the disastrous battle. ("L. & C." 
VI. xix/) 

Antelopes, Deer, Fawns, etc. These animals as i-epresenting at 
once the claims of grace and swiftness, and innocency trembling 
beneath the harsh oppression of the strong, are treated by the poet 
with compassionate sympathy. 1244, 1246. (and see Ellis). 

Birds. Here only the more grossly carnivorous are subjects of 
aversion. 

Vultures. 1233, 1252, 1255, 1284, (and Ravens). 

Eagles. The Eagle is saved by his very sublimity, as evident from 
1248, 1272, 1273. 

But in " Laon and Cythna" he is regarded as the symbol of the 
Evil Spirit, and other passages in the poems refer to him in his 
rapacious character, e.g., " Arethusa," III. 16; " Hellas," 307 ; "Laon 
and Cythna," VII. xxvii. 4. 

(10) Human to Abstractions, etc. — 40 similes. 

Of these three only are retained. 1288 and 1289 are subtly 
imaginative, and reveal Shelley's pinmitive tendency to create living 
essences, as it were the presiding spirits or divinities of beautiful 
places. 

(11) Natural to Natural — 119 similes. 

Gruesotne, 1336. 

Reflected Li'^ht, 1346; Reflected Form, 1378. 

Colour, 1382, 1383. 

Cloud or Vapour Imar^ry, 1290, 1292, 1293, 1296, 1305, 1342, 
1347, 1348, 1349, 1363, 1364, 1373, .1403. 



29 

(12) Natural to Humav or Natural Phenomena to Mental 
Phenomena, Spirits, etc. — 40 similes. 

Shairp insisted that Shelley was incapable of direct forcible 
description, because, while contemplating a landscape, his thoughts 
evaporated into fantastic and unreal conceptions. 

" So entirely at home is he in this abstract shadowy world of his 
own making, that when he would describe common visible things he 
does so by likening them to those phantoms of the brain, as though 
with these last alone he was familiar. Virgil likens the ghosts by 
the banks of Styx to falling leaves — Shelley likens falling leaves to 
ghosts : The dead leaves ' Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter 
fleeing.' We see thus that nature as it actually exists has little place 
in Shelley's poetry." (Shairp in Fraser's, N. S., XX.) 

This is weak and insipid criticism with but a grain of truth in it. 
The similes, for example, wherein Shelley expresses nature in terms 
of the human or spiritual world, are rare indeed by comparison with 
those in which human conditions are illustrated by a reference to the 
external world. Descriptions of the last-named kind prove, moreover, 
that Shelley could write when he would with his "eye upon the 
object"; and many detailed descriptions besides would attest his 
powers of a concrete and definite presentation of beauty. Bearing 
this reservation in mind, we may admit that the Quartei'ly JReviev}, 
Vol. CLXIV., makes a nearer hit at the truth. " Except in the 
distinct descriptions contained in ' Julian and Maddalo,' or the 
distinct studies of atmospheric effects, everything is allegorized and 
idealized. Substance fades when the characteristics of nature change 
with his moods, and the ' orbed maiden with white fire laden ' becomes 
a ' dying lady, lean and pale.' Shelley, with his quivering sensibility, 
his fresh imagination, his intense and simple nature, treats stream 
and fountain cloud and bird, in the true spirit of a mythological 
poet. He associates inanimate matter with the attributes of sentient 
mind ; endows it with his own passions ; tinges it with the hues of 
his own life. His pictures are so charged with supernatural life that 
he seems unable to observe without personifying. ..." 

In point of fact, Shelley in this figurative type merely conforms to 
the usage of the great idealistic poets. He represents Nature as a 
living symbol. And whereas the majority of poets materialize their 
ideas by images drawn from the external world, Shelley spiritualizes 
inanimate nature by a vivid symbolical interpretation of natural 
phenomena translated into the language of the intellect. Lamartine, 
the great idealist in French literature, as Shelley in English 
literature, afTords innumeraVjle examples of this faculty. 

He speaks of a white corolla — 

" Elle est pale comn.e iine joue 
Dont I'amour a l)u las couleiirs." 



30 
Or again 

" Ue I'astre de la nuit un rayon solitaire, 
A travers les vitraux dii sombre sanctuaire, 
Glissait comnie I'espoir a travers le malheur, 
Oil dans la nuit de I'ame un regard du Seigneur." 

Gruesome Similes. Shelley's inevitable tendency to revel in 
gruesome ideas in the midst of beauty {cf. Hugo's employment of the 
grotesque) shows itself in the following similes: 1426, 1428, 1430, 
1432. 

(13) Natural to Animal — 27 similes. 

Grueso7ne, 1497. 

Number 1474, and the whole poem from which it is taken, 
admirably reveal Shelley's mythopoeic power. 

(14) Similes of Swiftness and Evanescence — 45 similes. 

These similes are of great value for the characteristic expression 
which they give to an important side of Shelley's genius. Endowed 
with faculties of perception attuned to the higliest pitch of intensity, 
and with emotional desires ever fleeting beyond the reach of attain- 
ment, his poetry vibrates with an eager vehemence of speed, 
incomparable surely within the range of literature ; and there is 
always present amid all the ardours of emotional pursuit an ineffable 
sense of loss or unattained desire, poignantly expressed again and 
again by the confession of the transiency of earthly joys, and by the 
evanescence of those insecure delights which crumble in the hand 
stretched out to seize them. I have therefore classed together the 
similes of speed and of evanescence as representing two closely 
related expressions of the same qualities of mind. 

In his similes of swiftness Shelley stands alone. His similes of 
evanescences are at one with the traditions of poetry in all ages and 
in every land. No great poet has ever been blind to the fleeting 
character of earthly beauty, nor to the perilous tenure by which we 
hold ^the transient gifts of time. Isaiah was not the first to give 
utterance to this confession of human impotence in that splendid 
passage in the thirty-fourth chapter : 

" And all the host of heaven shall M'aste away : 
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll ; 
And all their host shall wither ; 
As the withered leaf falleth from the vine, 
And as the blighted fig from the fig-tree ; " 

and while poetry exists there will be heard this human cry voicing 
the dumb protest of the world against the relentless march of change. 
An analysis of these similes will show us Shelley's favourite 
comparisons. 



31 

Swiftness represented by 

Cloitd(s), 1477, 1485, 1491, 1497, 1519, 1520, 1534, 1545, 1556, 
1567, 1578, 1596. 

Shadow{s), 1516, 1552, 1571, 1579, 1584, 1587, 1621. 

lhought{s), 1504, 1521, 1541, 1543, 1560, 1592; Wind, 1538, 
1573, 1583. 

Whirlwind, 1503; Tempest-vapour, 1502, 1542. 

Storm, 1572, 1601; Leaves in tempest, 1487; Insects in gale, 1493. 

Hist, 1621 ; Volcano-smoke, 1490; Earthquake, 1599. 

River-foam, 1479; Foam from ship, 1550; Gossamer, 1517. 

Light, \b\S, 1605; Morning, 1515; Fire, 1537, 1611. 

Moon, 1523; Meteor, 1561; Star, 1580; Dream, 1563, 1590. 

Eagle, 1498, 1505, 1581; Antelope, 1597; Tiger, 1582; Horse, 
1602. 

Evanescence represented by 

Cloud{s), 1482, 1485, 1508, 1509, 1528, 1553, 1558, 1564, 1613. 

Detv, 1481, 1488, 1536, 1546, 1566, 1576, 1609. 

Mist, 1495, 1510, 1531, 1542, 1595, 1614. 

Shadoiv{s), 1499, 1506, 1511, 1514, 1539, 1565, 1575. 

Smoke, 1486, 1507, 1512; Foam, 1588; Wave, 1615. 

River {in Sand), 1501, 1549, 1570. Bubbles on River, 1562. 

Sprat/, 1540. Wind, 1513, 1620, 1593. Taper, 1554. 

Dream, 1569, 1574. Moonlight, 1594. Embers, 1604. 

Corpse, 1591. Z)<ts^, 1577. Insect, 1555. 

Child's Legend in Sand, 1585 (and c/! 1589). 

(15) Similes of Love — 55 similes. 

Of these, 41 bear upon Nature, and are retained. Shelley usually 
approaches love after the manner of the mystics, regarding it as the 
vital creative principle and the indissoluble band which knits the 
universe. Love and beauty in Shelley's half formless philosophy are 
so merged one in the other, that it is frequently difficult to dissociate 
them, and a discussion of the one topic would involve an investigation 
of the other. Here it need only be observed as a matter of curiosity 
that Love for the most part is figuratively expressed by an image of 
Liiht, e.g., 1623, 1624, 1625, 1626, 1627, 1630, 1632, 1637, f646, 
1649, 1650. 

Is this a reflection of the Neo -Platonic philosophy? Plotinus, it 
will be remembered, attached mystical significance to light. 

(16) Similes of Dream — 51 similes. 
(Five retained.) 



32 

(17) Similes of Thought — 30 similes. 

(Twenty retained.) 
Compared to Shadows, 1668, 1671, 1672. ^ Light, 1673, 1676. 

(18) SiMiLKS OF Nu-VBER — 25 similes. 

(To denote a multitude.) 
Basis of Comparison. 

Leaves, 1688, 1689, 1699, 1704, 1705, 1711. (Note the dif- 
ference in presentation in each case.) 

Sand, 1690, 1693. Waves, 1691, 1692, 1702. Clouds, 1695, 
1697,1706. Summer flies, 1700, 1709. Gnats, 1701, 170.3, ir08. 
Ants, 1712. Mist, 1721. 

This category on examination will show how Shelley's originality 
enabled him to escape the bounds of conventionality. For no class 
of similes has such an artificial array of examples established by 
literary tradition, since Homer fiist numbered the hosts of well- 
greaved Achaians. 

"So stood they in the flowery Scamandrian plain, unnumbered as 
are leaves and flowers in their season. Even as the many tribes of 
thick flies that hover about a herdsman's steading in the spring 
season, when milk drencheth the pails, even in like number stood the 
flowing-haired Achaians upon the plain in face of the Trojans, eager 
to rend them asunder" ... or the following,— " Of a truth 
have I oft ere now entered into battles of the warriors, yet have I 
never seen so goodly a host, and so great ; for in the very likeness of 
the leaves of the forest or the sands of the sea, are they marching 
along the plain to fight against the city." The Bible also is a 
treasure-house for such similes, and the danger of conventional usage 
is therefore evident. The following only may be considered con- 
ventional, 1688, 1689, 1690, 1691, 1693, 1699, 1700, 1703; whereas 
in the other examples the poet's subtle powers of perception are ex- 
ercised to derive the appropriate imagery from the field of Nature. 

Flower Similes. 

It only now remains to refer to the numerous flower similes or 
references that are scattered through the various categories. Many 
of these are extremely careful and delicate studies. 

Flowers in General,— \b, 75, 132, 164, 165, 169, 174, 190, 243, 
333, 353, 378, 391, 396, 400, 401-2-3-4, 559, 593, 636, 639, 640, 643, 
683, 684, 747, 754, 825, 852, 906, 908, 968, 980, 986, 1006, 1016, 
1020, 1022, 1031, 1042, 1065, 1075, 1103, 1109, 1112, 1114, 1130, 
1135, 1148, 1149, 1195, 1312, 1392, 1401, 1405, 1424, 14.36, 1444, 
l649. 

Roses, 33, 341, 362, 370, 397, 605, 646, 753, 1089, 1090, 1423. 

Lilies, 352, 393, 729, 1178, 1332, 1422. Hyacinth, 536, 554, 886. 

Violet, 624, 637, 638, 1023. Snowdrop, 638. Daisij, 1333. 

Lem,onflotver, 641. Magnolia, 1380. Sensitive Plant, 1454. 



33 



SIMILES OF COLOUR AND LIGHT. 



(a) Cloud Colour (and Mist). 

1 The pyramids 
Of the tall cedar overarching, frame 
Most solemn domes within, and far below, 
Like clouds suspended in an emerald sky, 
The ash and the acacia floating hang 

Tremulous and pale. — Alasl. 433/. 

2 Even as a vapour fed with golden beams 
That ministered on sunlight, ere the west 

Eclipses it, was now that wondrous frame — — Alast. 633/f. 

3 Its shape reposed within : slight as some cloud 
That catches but the palest tinge of day 

When evening yields to night. 
Bright as that fibrous woof when stars indue 

•■ Its transitory robe. —B. W. 59. 

4 Human eye hath ne'er beheld 

A shape so wild, so bright, so beautiful. 

As that which o'er the maiden's charmed sleep, 

Waving a starry wand, 

Hung like a mist of light — />. W. 70. 

fi Thou must have marked the billowy mountain clouds, 
Edged with intolerable radiancy. 
Towering like rocks of jet 
Above the burning deep — D. W. 197. 

6 And yet there is a moment 

When those far clouds of feathery purple gleam 

Like fairy lands girt by some heavenly sea : — D. W. 201. 

7 And walked as free as light the clouds among, — L. d: G. Ded. 

8 Even like the dayspring, poured on vapours dank. 
The beams of that one Star did shoot and quiver 

Thro' my benighted mind— and were extinguished never. 

—L. d.- a I. 41. 

9 at night, methought in dream 
A Shape of speechless beauty did appear : 

It stood like light on a careering stream 

Of golden clouds which shook the atmosphere ; 

—L. (t C. I. 42. 



34 

TO and as the vapours lie 

Bright in the outspread morning's radiancy, 
So were these thoughts invested with the light 
Of language —L. tC' C. II. 16. 

ill She moved upon this earth a shape of brightness, 
A power that from its objects scarcely drew 
One impulse of her being — in her lightness 
Most like some radiant cloud of morning dew 
Which wanders thro' the waste air's pathless blue, 
To nourish some far desert —L. <£• C. II. 23. 

'32 the twilight's gloom 

Lay like a eharnel's mist witliin the radiant dome. 

—L. d.- C. V. 22. 

13 She stood beside me like a rainbow braided 

Within some storm, when scarce its shadows vast 
From tlie blue iiaths of the swift sun have faded, 

- L. d.- C. V. 24. 

1J4 for now 

A power, a thirst, a knowledge, which below 
All thoughts, like light beyond the atmosphere. 
Clothing its clouds with grace, doth ever flow. 
Came on us as we sat in silence there, 
Beneath the golden stars of the clear azure air. 

—L. cL' C. VI. 30. 

'J5 as an autumnal blossom 

Which spreads its shrunk leaves in the sunny air, 
After cold showers, like rainbows woven there, 
Thus in her lips and cheeks the vital spirit 
Mantled, and in her eyes, an atmosphere 
Of health and hope ; —L. d- C. VI. 55. 

^6 And the white clouds of noon which oft were sleeping, 
In the blue heaven so beautiful and fair, 
Like hosts of ghastly shadows hovering there ; 

— Z. ci- G. VII. 15. 

117 My eye and voice grew firm, calm was my mind, 
And piercing, like the morn, now it has darted 
Its lustre on all hidden things, behind 
Yon dim and fading clouds which load the wearv wind. 

—L. cfc C. VII. 30. 

ajj the day was dying : — 

Sudden, the sun shone forth, its beams were lying 
Like boiling gold on Ocean, strange to see, 
And on the shattered vapours, which defying 
The power of light in vain, tossed restlessly 
In the red Heaven, like wrecks in a tempestuous sea. 

—L. d- C. XI. 2. 

Its It was a stream of living beams, whose bank 
On either side by the cloud's cleft was made, 
And where its chasms that flood of glory drank, 
Its waves gushed forth like fire, — L. d; C. XI. 3. 



35 

no when bright, like dawning day, 

The Spectre of the Plague before me flew. — L. d- C. XII. 25. 

21 and hope and peace 
On all who heard him did abide, 
Raining like dew from his sweet talk, 
As where the evening star may walk, 
Along the brink of the gloomy seas, 

Liquid mists of splendour quiver. — IL tt' H. 641. 

22 And in that dark and evil day 

Did all desires and thoughts, that claim 

Men's care, ambition, friendship, fame, 

Love, hope, though hope was now despair — 

Indue the colors of this change. 

As from the all-surrounding air 

The earth takes hues obscure and strange. 

When storm and earthquake linger there. — /'. <£• ff. 724. 

23 On my faint eyes and limbs did dwell 
That spirit as it passed, till soon 

As a frail cloud wandering o'er the moon, 

Beneath its light invisible. 

Is seen when it folds its grey wings again 

To alight on midnight's dusky plain, 

I lived and saw, and the gathering soul, 

Passed from beneath that strong control, — B. d- H. 1039. 

24 There is no lament for him 
Like a sunless vapour, dim 

Who once clothed with life and thought 

What now moves nor murmurs not. — Eug. H. 61. 

25 Gathering round with wings all hoar, 
Thro' the dewy mist they soar 

Like grey shades, till the Eastern heaven 
i26 Bursts, and then, as clouds of even, 
Flecked with lire and azure, lie 
In the unfathomable sky, 
So their plumes of purple grain, 
Starred with drops of golden rain. 
Gleam above the sunlight woods. 
As in silent multitudes 
On the morning's fitful gale 
Thro' the broken mist thej' sail, 
And the vapours cloven and gleaming 
Follow down the dark steep streaming. 
Till all is bright, and clear, and still, 
Round the solitary hill. — Euy. H. 74. 

■27 From the sea a mist has spread. 
And the beams of morn lie dead 
On the towers of Venice now, 
Like its glory long ago, — Eag. H. 210. 

28 Noon descends around me now : 
'Tis the noon of aiitumn's glow. 
When a soft and purple mist 
Like a vaporous amethyst, 



36 



29 Or an air-dissolved star 

Mingling light and fragrance — Eug. H. 285.. 

30 The awful shadow of some unseen Power 

Floats tho' unseen amongst us — 



Like clouds in starlight widely spread. — H. I. B. I> 

31 Spirit of Beauty 

Thy light alone like mist o'er mountains driven 

Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. — H. I. B. III. 

32 Look, sister, ere the vapour dim thy brain : 
Beneath is a wide plain of billowy mist, 
As a lake, paving in the morning sky, 

With azure waves which burst in silver light. 

Some Indian vale. — Prom. II. iii. 18. 

and the light 

33 Wliich fills tliis vapour, as the aerial hue 
Of fountain-gazing roses fills the water,! 

Flows from thy mighty sister — Prom. II. v. 11. 

34 Child of Light ! thy limbs are burning 
Thro' the veil which seems to hide them ; 
As the radiant lines of morning 

Thro' the clouds ere they divide them ; 
And this atmosphere divinest 
Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest. — Prom. II. v. 54. 

35 The elements obey me not. I sink 
Dizzily down, ever, for ever, down. 
And, like a cloud, mine enemy above 

Darkens my fall with victory. — Prom. III. ii. 80. 

36 Its wheels are solid clouds, azure and gold, 
Such as the genii of the thunder storm 
Pile on the floor of the illumined sea 
When the sun rushes under it ; they roll 
And move and grow as with an inward wind ; 

—Prom. IV. 214. 

37 The joy, the triumph, the delight, the madness ! 
The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness, 
The vaporous exultation not to be confined ! 

Ha ! ha ! the animation of delight 
Which wraps me, like an atmosphere of light. 
And bears me as a cloud is borne by its own wind. 

—Prom. IV. 319. 

38 Drinking from thy sense and sight 
Beauty, majesty, and might 



As a grey and watery mist 
Glows like solid amethyst 
Athwart the western mountain it enfolds, 
When the sunset sleeps 

Upon its snow — Prom. IV. 481. 



37 

39 The wrecks of the tempest, like vapours of gold, 

Are consuming in sunrise — Vis. of Sea, 127. 

40 Thou bearer of the quiver. 

Whose sunlike shafts pierce tempest-winged Error, 
As light may pierce the clouds when they dissever 
In the calm regions of the orient day — Ode to Lib. X. 

41 I hear the pennons of her car 
Self-moving, like cloud charioted by flame ; 

—Ode to Lib. XVIII. 

42 How glorious it will be to see her Majesty 
Flying above our heads, her petticoats 
Streaming like ..... 

Or like a cloud dyed in the dying day 
Unravelled on the blast from a white mountain ; 

—(Ed. Tyr. 95. 

43 ' one intense 
DiflFusion, one serene Omnipresence 

Whose flowing outlines mingle in their flowing 

Around her cheeks and utmost fingers glowing 

With the unintermitted blood, which there 

Quivers (as in a fleece of snow-like air 

The crimson pulse of living morning quiver) — Epips. 94. 

44 the moving pomp might seem 

Like pageantry of mist on an autumnal stream. — Adon. y^lll. 

45 His cold pale limbs and pulseless arteries 
Are like the fibres of a cloud instinct 

With light, —Hell. 142. 

46 A mortal shape to him 
Was like the vapour dim 

Which the orient planet animates with light ; — Hell. 215 

47 The Anarchies of Africa unleash 
Their tempest-winged cities of the sea, 
To speak in thunder to the rebel world. 

Like sulphurous clouds, half shattered by the storm. 

They sweep the pale ^I<]gean, — Hell. 299. 

48 In the death hues of agony 
Lambently flashing from a fish. 
Now Peter felt amused to see 
Shades like a rainbow's rise and flee. 

Mixed with a certain hungry wish. — P. B. XXVI. 

49 the thunder smoke 
Is gathering on the mountains, like a cloak 
Folded across their shoulders broad and bare ; 

—Lett, to M. 6. 1 16. 

50 Such clouds as flit, 
Like splendour-winged moths about a taper. 

Round the red west when the sun dies in it — Witch, III. 



MS 

51 and on the water for her tread 
A tapestry of fleece-like mist was strewn, 

Dyed in the beams of the ascending moon — Witch, LIII. 

52 Its shape was such as summer melody 

Of the south wind in spicy vales might give 

To some light cloud bound from the golden dawn 

To fairy isles of evening, — Fraytn. of Dram. 215. 

53 See those thronging chariots 
Rolling like painted clouds before the wind 

Behind their solemn steeds — Chas. I., I. 136. 

54 Oh, light us to the isles of the evening land ! 
Like floating Edens cradled in the glimmer 
of sunset, through the distant mist of years 

Touched by departing hope, they gleam ! — Ghas. I., IV. 22. 

55 and the sense 
Of hope through her fine texture did suffuse 
Such varying glow, as summer evening casts 

On undulating clouds and deepening lakes. — D. W. 36. 

56 Let us laugh and make onr mirth. 
At the shadows of the earth. 

As dogs bay the moonlight clouds, 

Which like spectres wrapt in shrouds. 

Pass o'er night in multitudes — Invoc. to Mis. XII. 

57 From that Typhaen mount, Inarime, 

There streamed a sunlight vapour, like the standard 

Of some aetherial host ; —Ode to Nap. 44. 

58 On one side of this jagged and shapeless hill 
There is a cave, from which there eddies up 

A pale mist like aerial gossamer, — Orph. 18. 

59 The Fairy's frame was slight, yon fibrous cloud. 
That catches but the palest tinge of even 

And which the straining eye can hardly seize 
When melting into eastern twilight's shadow. 
Were scarce so thin, so slight — Q- M. 94. 



{h) Water Colour. 

60 With the sun's cloudless orb, 
Whose rays of rapid light 

Parted around the chariot's swifter course. 

And fell like ocean's feathery spray 

Dashed from the boiling surge 

Before a vessel's prow. — D. W . 153. 

61 For where the irresistible storm had cloven 
That fearful darkness the blue sky was seen 
Fretted with many a fair cloud interwoven 
Most delicately, and the ocean green. 
Beneath that opening spot of blue serene, 

Qiiivered like burning emerald : — L. «C- C. I. 4_ 



39 

62 Only 'twas strange to see the red commotion 
Of waves like mountains o'er the sinking sphere 

Of sunset sweep, — L. d; G. I. 151. 

63 Beside that Image then I sate, while she 

Stood, mid the throngs which ever ebbed and flowed 

Like light amid the shadows of the sea 

Cast from one cloudless star, — L. d- C. V. 5K. 

64 while tears pursued 
Each other down her fair and listening cheek 
Fast as the thoughts that fed them, like a flood 

From sunbright dales ; —L. dr C. VII. 2.. 

65 And in that roof of crags a space was riven 

Thro' which there shone the emerald beams of heaven. 

Shot thro' the lines of many waves inwoven. 

Like sunlight thro' acacia woods at even, — L. ct C. VII. IL. 

66 Below the fountain's brink was richly paven 
With the deep's wealth, coral and pearl, and sand 

Like spangling gold, — L. <k C. VII. IX- 

67 When the summer wind faint odours brought 
From mountain flowers, even as it passed 
His cheek would change, as the noon-daj' sea 

Which the dying breeze sweeps fitfullj' . — R. dr H. 1015^ 

68 Beneath is spread like a green sea 
The waveless plain of Lonibardy, 
Bounded by the vaporous air, 

Islanded by cities fair ; — hug. H. 90. 

69 And far on high the keen sky-cleaving mountains 
From icy spires of sun-like radiance fling 

The dawn, as lifted Ocean's dazzling spray. 
From some Atlantic islet scattered up, 

70 Spangles the wind with lamp-like water drops, 

—Prom. II. iii. 7* 

71 I hid myself 
Within a fountain in the public square. 
Where I lay like a reflex of the moon 

Seen in a wave under green leaves ; — Prom. III. iv. 6K 

72 With mighty whirl the multitudinous orb 
Grinds the bright brook into an azure mist 

Of elemental subtlety, like light ; —Prom. IV. 253. 

73 The plumed insects swift and free, 

Like golden boats on a sunny sea. — Sens. P. I. 82.. 

74 And wherever her airy footsteps trod, 
Her trailing hair from the grassy sod 
Erased its light vestige, with shadowy sweep, 

Like a sunny storm o'er the dark green deep. — Seyis. P. II. 25^ 

75 Three days the flowers of the garden fair, 
Like stars when the moon is awakened, were, 
Or the waves of Baise, ere luminous 

She floats up through the smoke of Vesuvius. — Sens. P. III. 1- 



40 

76 While the surf like a chaos of stars, like a rout 
77, 78 Of death-flames, like whirlpools of fire-flowing iron 
With splendour and terror the black ship environ, 

79 Or like sulphur-flakes hurled from a mine of pale fire 

In fountains spout o'er it. — Visioii of Sea, 18. 

80 And I was laid asleep, spirit and limb, 
And all my being became bright or dim 

As the moon's image in a summer sea, * 

According as she smiled or frowned on me ; — Epips. 295. 

81 And many a fountain, rivulet, and pond, 
As clear as elemental diamond, 

82 Or serene morning air ; — Epips. 436. 

83 Let there be Light ! said Liberty, 
And like sunrise from the sea 

Athens arose ! — Hell. 682. 

84 I see the waves upon the shore, 

Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown : 

— Stanza-^ near Nap. II. 

85 This quicksilver no gnome has drunk — within 
The walnut bowl it lies, veined and thin. 

In colour like the wake of light that stains 
The Tuscan deep, when from the moist moon rains 
The inmost shower of its white fire — the breeze 
Is still, blue heaven smiles o'er the pale seas. 

—Letter to M. G. 06. 

86 The ripe corn under the undulating air 

Undulates like an ocean ; — Letter to M. G. 119. 

87 And down the earthquaking cataracts which shiver 

Their snow-like waters into golden air, —Witch, XLII. 

88 The water flashed like sunlight by the prow 

Of a noon-wandering meteor flung to Heaven ; 

— Witch, XLVL 

89 To glide adown old Nilus, where he threads 
Egypt and Ethiopia, from the steep 

Of utmost Axume, until he spreads, 
Like a calm flock of silver-fleeced sheep, — Witch, LVII. 

His waters on the plain 

90 And the sun's image radiantly intense 



Burned on the waters of the well that glowed 
Like gold, and threaded all the forest's maze 
With winding paths of emerald fire ; — Tr. of L. 345. 

91 Like a gloomy stain 

On the emerald main — Areth. III. 

Alpheus rushed behind, 

92 And under the caves, 
Where the shadowy waves 

Are as green as the forest's night : — Areth. IV. 



41 

93 Great spirit, deepest Love 

Or, with thy harmonizing ardours fill 

And raise thy sons, as o'er the prone horizon 

Thy lamp feeds every twilight wave with fire. — Ode to N. 165. 

94 Now all the tree-tops lay asleep 

Like green waves on the sea, — To Jane, 29. 

95 O'er the thin texture of its frame 

The varying periods painted changing glows, 

As on a summer evening, 
When soul-enfolding music floats around, 
The stainless mirror of the lake 
Re-images the eastern gloom 
Mingling convulsively its purple lines 

With sunset's burnished gold — Q. M. 3. 

(c) The Sun. 

96 The moon arose : and lo, the a^therial cliflFs 
Of Caucasus, whose icy summits shone 

Among the stars like sunlight, — Alast. 352. 

97 A speck, a cloud, a shape, approaching grew. 
Like a great ship in the sun's sinking sphere 

Beheld afar at sea, and swift it came anear — L. d- C. I. 6. 

98 And oft in cycles since, when darkness gave 
New weapons to thy foe, their sun-like fame 

Upon the combat shone — — L. cb C. I. 32. 

99 Day after day the burning sun rolled on 
Over the death -polluted land — it came 

Out of the east like fire, —L. d- C. X. 13. 

iOO the day was dying : — 

Sudden the sun shone forth, its beams were lying 
Like boiling gold on Ocean, strange to see, 
And on the shattered vapours, which defying 
The power of light in vain, tossed restlessly 
In the ret! Heaven, like wrecks in a tempestuous sea. 

-L. d C. XL 2. 

101 And as the meteor's midnight flame 
Startles the dreamer, sun-like truth 

Flashed on his visionary youth. — R. ct- H. 617. 

102 And the light which flushed through his waxen cheek 
Grew faint, as the rose-like hues which flow 

From sunset o'er the Alpine snow : — E. d H. 1009. 

103 And that eternal honour which should live 

Sun-like, above the reek of mortal iame. — Genci, V. iii. 31. 

104 Pity the self-despising slaves of Heaven, 
Not me, within whose mind sits peace serene 

As light in the sun, throned : — Prom, I. 429. 



42 

105 And far on high the keen sky-cleaving mountains 
From icy spires of sun like radiance fiing 

The dawn, —Prom. II. iii. 28, 

106 Vast beams like spokes of some invisible wheel 
Which whirl as the orb whirls, swifter than thought, 

Filling the abyss with sun-like lightnings. — Prom. IV. 274. 

107 thou bearer of the quiver. 
Whose sun-like shafts pierce tempest-winged lirror. 

—Ode to Lib. X. 

108 When like heaven's sun girt by the exhalation 
Of its own glorious light, thou didst arise. 
Chasing thy foes from nation unto nation 

Like shadows. — Ode to Lib. XI. 

109 Thou Mirror 
In whom, as in the splendour of the sun, 

All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on 1 — Epips. 30. 

1 10 Imagination ! which from earth and sky, 
And from the depths of human phantasy, 
As from a thousand prisms and mirrors, fills 
The Universe with glorious beams, and kills 
Error, the worm, with many a sun-like arrow 

Of its reverberated lightning. — Epips. 164. 

111 Soft as an Incarnation of the Sun, 

When light is changed to love, this glorious One 

Floated into the cavern where 1 lay, — Epips. 335. 

112 Another Athens shall arise 
And to remoter time 
Bequeath, like sunset to the skies. 

The splendour of its prime ; — Hell. 1084. 

113 Like winged stars the tire-flies flash and glance 
Pale in the open moonshine, but each one 

Under the dark trees seems a little sun. — Letter to M. G. 28L 

114 And she saw princes couched under the glow 

Of sun-like gems ;] —Witch, LXIV. 

115 And on the right hand of the sun-like throne. 

— Witch, LXXIV, 

116 For he seemed stormy, and would often seem 
A quenchless sun masked in portentous clouds. 

— Fragm. of Dram. 107- 

117 This Charles the First 

Rose like the equinoctial sun (engirt) 

By vapours — Chas. I. 46. 

118 And a cold glare, intenser than the noon. 
But icy cold, obscured with blinding light 

The sun, as he the stars. — Tr. of L. 77- 

119 I arose, and for a space 
The scene of woods and waters seemed to keep 
Though it was now broad day, a gentle trace 

Of light diviner than the common sun 

Sheds on the common earth, — Tr. of L. 335. 



43 

120 there stood 
Amid the sun, as he amid the blaze 

Of his own glory, on the vibrating 

Floor of the fountain, paved with flashing rays, 

A shape all light. —Tr. of L. 348. 

121 And many a fresh Spring-morn would he awaken 
While yet the unrisen sun made glow, like iron 
Quivering in crimson fire, the peaks unshaken 
Of mountains and blue isles which did environ 

With air-clad crags that plain of land and sea — — Mar. XXII. 

122 And under the water 

The Earth's white daughter 

Fled like a sunny beam ; —Arefh. III. 

123 And leaving noblest things vacant and chidden, 
Cold as a corpse after the spirit's flight, 

Blank as the sun after the birth of night. — Zucca, IV. 

124 There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn, 
And through the dark green wood 

The white sun twinkling like the dawn 

Out of a speckled cloud. — Recoil. 65. 

125 The sun's unclouded orb 

Rolled through the black concave ; 

Its rays of rapid light 
Parted around the chariot's swifter course. 
And fell, like ocean's feathery spray 

Dashed from the boiling surge 

Before a vessel's prow. — Q. M. 242. 

126 And countless spheres diffused 

An ever- varying glory. 

Some shone like suns, and as the chariot passed, 

Eclipsed all other light. —Q. M. 255. 

((/) The Moon. 

127 How wonderful is Death, 
Death and his brother Sleep ! 

One pale as yonder wan and horned moon, 

With lips of lurid blue, —D. W. 1. 

128 And countless spheres diffused 

An ever- varying glory. 
It was a sight of wonder, some were horned, 
And, like the moon's argentine crescent liung 
In the dark dome of heaven, — D. W. 162. 

129 And that strange boat, like the moon's shade did sway 

Amid reflected stars that in the waters lay. — L. cb C. I. 22. 

130 from that night 
She fled ; like those illusions clear and bright, 
Which dwell in lakes, when the red moon on high 

Pause ere it wakens tempest ; — L. d- C. VII. 22. 



44 

131 Behold ! 

The sinking moon is like a watch-tower blazing 

Over the mountains yet; — L. tt- C. VIII. 1. 

132 high above was spread 
The emerald heaven of trees of unknown kind, 
Whose nioonlike blooms and bright fruit overhead 
A shadow, which was light, upon tlie waters shed 

—L. & C. XII. 18. 

133 the prow and stern did curl 
Horned on high, like the young moon supine. 
When o'er dim twilight mountains dark with pine. 
It floats upon the sunset's sea of beams, 

Whose golden waves in many a purple line 
Fade fast, till borne on sunlight's ebbing streams. 
Dilating, on earth's verge the sunken meteor gleams. 

—L. cfc C. XII. 21. 

134 for thro' the sky 
The spher(id lamps of day and night, revealing 
New changes and new glories, rolled on high. 
Sun, moon, and moon-like lamps, the progeny 

Of a diviner Heaven, serene and fair : — L. d- G. XII. 38. 

135 yet his countenance 
Raised upward, burned with radiance 
Of spirit-piercing joy, whose light. 

Like the moon struggling through the night 

Of whirlwind-rifted clouds, did break 

With beams that might not be confined. — B. <fr H. 1 154. 

The awful shadow of some unseen Power 

Floats though unseen among us, visiting 
This various world with as inconstant wing 

As summer winds that creep from flower to flower 

136 Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, 

It visits with inconstant glance 

Each human heart and countenance ; — H. I B. I. 

Spirit of Beauty 



Thy light alone — like mist o'er mountains driven. 
Or music by the night wind sent 
Thro' strings of some strange instrument, 

137 Or moonlight on a midnight stream, 

Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. — H. I. B. III. 

138 'tis He, arrayed 
In the soft light of his own smiles, which spread 
Like radiance from the cloud-surrounded moon. 

—Prom. II. i. 120. 

139 and from their glassy thrones 
Blue Proteus and his humid nymphs shall mark 
The shadow of fair ships, as mortals see 

The floating bark of the light-laden moon 
With that white star, its sightless pilot's crest, 
Borne down the rapid sunset's ebbing sea ; 

—Prom. III. ii. 23. 



45 

140 And where my moon-like car will stand within 

A temple, gazed upon by Phidian forms — Prom. III. iv. Ill 

141 the brightness 
Of her divinest presence trembles through 
Her limbs, a# underneath a cloud of dew 
Embodied in the windless heaven of June 
Amid the splendour-winged stars, the moon 

Burns, inextinguishably beautiful : — Epips. 77. 

142 Thine eyes glowed in the glare 

Of the moon's dying light ; 
As a fenfire's beam on a sluggish stream. 
Gleams dimly, so the moon shone there, — Lines, III. 

143 But Peter's verse was clear, and came 

Or like the sudden moon, that stains 
Some gloomy chamber's window panes 

With a "broad light like day. —Peter B. XIV. 

144 and now she grew 

Pale as that moon, lost in the watery night. — Witch, LIV. 

145 Like the young moon 
When on the sunlit limits of the night 
Her white shell trembles amid crimson air. 
And whilst the sleeping tempest gathers might 
Doth, as the herald of its coming, bear 

The ghost of its dead mother, whose dim form 

Bends in dark ether from her infant's chair, 

So came a chariot on the silent storm 

Of its own rushing splendour, — Tr. of L. 79 

146 And so she moved under the bridal veil, 
Which made the paleness of her cheek more pale, 
And deepened the faint crimson of her mouth, 

And darkened her dark locks, as moonlight doth, — Gin. 13. 

147 A moonbeam in the shadow of a cloud 

Was less heavenly fair — — Gin. 21. 

148 Those lines of rainbow light 

Are like the moonbeams when they fall 

Through some cathedral window, — Q. M. 54. 

(Note change in D. W.) 

(e) The Stars. 

149 And countless spheres diffused 

An ever-varying glory 

some did shed 
A clear mild beam like Hesperus, while the sea 
Yet glows with fading sunlight. — D. W. 164. 



JO others dashed 

Athwart the night with trains of bickering fire, 

Like sphered worlds to death and ruin driven, — D. W. 170. 



46 



151 Some shone like stars, and as the chariot passed 

Bedimmed all other light —D. W. 173. 

152 And yet there is a moment 
When the sun's highest point 

Peers like a star o'er ocean's western edge, — D. W. 201. 

153 The city's moonlight spires and myriad lamps 

Like stars in a sublunar sky did glow — L. d: C. V. 1. 

154 The shadow of the lingering waves did wear 

Light, as from starry beams : — L. <£■ C. XII. 20. 

155 And where melodious falls did burst and shiver 
Among rocks clad with flowers, the foam and spray 
Sparkled like stars upon the sunny river, — L. <£• C. XII. ?A. 

156 That ivory dome, whose azure night 

With golden stars, like heaven, was bright — Ji. d; H. 1094. 

157 More yet come, one by one ; the air around them 

Looks radiant as the air around a star. — Prom. I, 692. 

158 Their beauty gives me voice. See how they float 
On their sustaining wings of skiey grain 
Orange and azure deepening into gold : 

Their soft smiles light the air like a star's fire. 

— Prom. I. 759. 

159 Or when some star of many a one 

That climbs and wanders thro' steep night. 

Has found the cleft thro' which alone 

Beams fall from high those depths upon, 

Ere it is borne away, away. 

By the swift heavens that cannot stay, 

It scatters drops of golden light, 

Like lines of rain that ne'er unite. — Prom. II. ii. 14. 

160 Sister, it is not earthly : how it glides 
Under the leaves ! how on its head there burns 
A light like a green star, whose emerald beams 
Are twined with its fair hair ! how, as it moves, 
The splendour drops in flakes upon the grass ! 

—Prom. III. iv. 1. 

161 And from a star upon its forehead, shoot, 

162 Like swords of azure fire, or golden spears 
With tyrant-quelling myrtle overtwined, 
Embleming heaven and earth united now, 

163 Vast beams like spokes of some invisible wheel 
Which whirl as the orb whirls, swifter than thought. 
Filling the abyss with sun-like lightnings, 

—Prom. IV. 270. 

164 Three days the flowers of the garden fair. 
Like stars when the moon is awakened, were, 

—Se7is. PI. III. 1. 



47 

165 The leprous corpse touched by this spirit tender 
Exhales itself in flowers of gentle breath ; 

Like incarnations of the stars, when splendour 

Is changed to fragrance, they illumine death, 

And mock the merry worm that wakes beneath ; — Adon. XX. 

166 Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, 
The soul of Adonais like a star. 

Beacons from the abode whei'e the eternal are. — Adon. LV. 

167 Though in his eyes a cloud and burthen lay, 
Through which his soul, like Vesper's serene beam 
Piercing the chasms of ever-rising clouds. 

Shone softly burning ; — Prince Ath. I. 60. 

168 The Balearic fisher, di'iven from shore. 
Hanging upon the peaked wave afar. 

Then saw their lamp from Laian's turret gleam, 

Piercing the stormy darkness like a star, 

Which pours beyond the sea one steadfast beam. 

Whilst all the constellations of the sky 

Seemed reeling through the storm. — Princt Ath. II. 24. 

169 The hoary grove 

Waxed green and flowers burst forth like starry beams 

— Prince Ath. III. S. 

170 Let the horsemen's scymitars 
Wheel and flash like sphereless stars 
Thirsting to eclipse their burning 

In a sea of death and mourning. — Ma-'tk of A. LX XVIII. 

171 Beyond, the surface of the unsickled corn 
Trembles not in the slumbering air, and borne 
In circles quaint, and ever-changing dance, 
Like winged stars the fire-flies flash and glance, 
Pale in the open moonshine, but each one 
Under the dark trees seems a little sun, 

172 A meteor tamed ; a fixed star gone astray 
From the silver regions of the Milky Way ; 

—Letter to M. G. 278. 

173 Through the green splendour of the water deep 
She saw the constellations reel and dance 

Like fire-flies — Witch, XXVIII. 

174 Until the golden eye of the bright flower. 
Through the dark lashes of those veined lids, 
Disencumbered of their silent sleep, 

Gazed like a star into the morning light 

— Fragni. of Dram. 168. 

175 And thou 

Fair star, whose beam lies on the wide Atlantic, 
Athwart its zones of tempest and of calm, 
Bright as the path to a beloved home, 
Oh, light us to the isles of the evening land ! 

— Chas I. IV. 18. 



48 

176 so on my sight 
Burst a new vision, never seen before, 

And the fair shape waned in the coming light, 
As veil by veil the silent splendour drops 
From Lucifer, amid the chrysolite 
Of sunrise, ere it tinge the mountain tops ; 

177 And as the presence of that fairest planet, 
Although unseen, is felt by one who hopes 
That his day's path may end as he began it 

178 In that star's smile, whose light is like the scent 
Of a jonquil when evening breezes fan it, 

179 Or the soft note in which his dear lament 

180 The Brescian Shepherd breathes, or the caress 

That turned his weary slumber to content ; — Tr. of L. 410. 

181 The golden gates of Sleep unbar 

Where Strength and Beauty met together, 

Kindle their image like a star 

In a sea of glassy weather — Bridal S. \f. 12/. 23/, 

182 And the smile thou wearest 
Wraps thee like a star 

Is wrapt in light — Fragm. of Hell. 184. 

183 Thou, whom seen nowhere, I feel everywhere, 
From Heaven and Earth and all that in them are. 

Veiled art thou, like a . . . star — Zucc. III. 

184 but the fair star 
That gems the glittering coronet of morn. 
Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful, 

As that which bursting form the Fairy's form, 

Spread a purpureal halo round the scene, — Q. M. 98, 

18ft The vast and fiery globes that rolled 
Around the Fairy's palace-gate 
Lessened by slow degrees and soon appeared 
Such tiny twinklers as the planet orbs 
That there attendant on the solar power 
With borrowed light pursued their narrower way — Q. M. 220. 

(/) Lightning. 

186 Not the strong impulse hid 

In those flushed cheeks, bent eyes, and shadowy frame 

Had yet performed its ministry : it hung 

Upon his life, as lightning in a cloud 

(jleams, hovering ere it vanish, ere the floods 

Of night close over it — Alast. 415. 

187 awful scene 

Where power in likeness of the Arve comes down 

From the ice gulphs that gird his secret throne, 

Bursting through these dark mountains like the flame 

Of lightning through the tempest ; — Mont. B. 15. 

188 Or when free thoughts like lightnings are alive ; 

—L. d- C. I. 33. 



49 

189 When mid soft looks of pity, there would dart 
A glance as keen as is the lightning's stroke 
When it doth rive the knots of some ancestral oak. 

—L. ct- C. IV. 6. 

190 And smiles — as when the lightning's blast 
Has parched some heaven-delighting oak, 
'I'he next spring shows leaves pale and rare. 
But like flowers delicate and fair, 

On its rent boughs, — again arrayed 

His countenance in tender light : — R. c^ H. "tSl. 

191 Like veiled lightning asleep 

A spell is treasured but for thee alone — Prom. II. iii. 83. 

192 Luther caught th}' wakening glance, 
Like lightning from his leaden lance 

Reflected, it dissolved the visions of the trance 

In which as in a tomb the nations lay ; — Ode to Lib. X. 

193 Aye, even the dim words which obscure thee now 

Flash, lightning-like, M'ith unaccustomed glow — Epips. 33. 

194 If Bacon's eagle spirit had not leapt 

Like lightning out of darkness — Tr. of L. 269 

195 But keener thy gaze than the lightning's glare, — Liher/y, III. 

196 Fairest of the Destinies, 
Disarray thy dazzling eyes : 
Keener far thy lightnings are 

Than the winged (bolts) thou bearest — Fragm. Hell. 180. 

((/) Meteors, Comets. 

197 A lurid earth-star, which dropped many a spark 
From its blue train, and spreading widely, clung 

To their wild hair, like mist the topmost pines among 

~L. db C. XL 12. 

198 And as the meteor's midnight flame 
Startles the dreamer, sun-like truth 

Flashed on his visionary youth, — R. d- H. 615. 

199 In thine halls the lamp of learning, 
Padua, now no more is burning. 
Like a meteor, whose wild way 

Is lost over the grave of day. 

It gleams betrayed and to betray ; — Eug. HiU><, 256. 

200 I have heard those more skilled in spirits say, 
The bubbles, which the enchantment of the sun 
Sucks from the pale faint water-flowers that pave 
The oozy bottom of clear lakes and pools, 

Are the pavilions where such dwell and float 

Under the green and golden atmosphere 

Which noon-tide kindles thro' the woven leaves ; 

And when these bui'st, and the thin fiery air, 

The which they breathed •wdthin those lucent domes. 



50 

Ascends to flow like meteors thro' the night, 

They ride on them, and rein their headlong speed, 

And bow their burning crests, and glide in fire 

Under the waters of the earth again. — Prom. If. ii. 70. 

201 Their bright locks 
Stream like a comet's flashing hair : they all 

Sweep onward. — Prom. II. iv. 138. 

202 the bright visions, 
Wherein the singing spirits rode and shone, 
Gleam like pale meteors through a watery night. 

—Prom. IV. 514. 

203 And the meteors of that sublunar heaven, 

Like the lamps of the air when night walks forth, 
Laughed round her footsteps up from the earth ! 

-Sem. PL II. 10. 

204 Death, Fear, 
Love, Beauty are mixed in tlie atmosphere ; 
Which trembles and burns with the fervour of dread 
Around her wild eyes, her bright hand, and her head. 

Like a meteor of light o'er the waters ! — Vision of Sea, 161. 

205 her petticoats streaming 

Or like a meteor, or a war-steed's mane, — CEd. Tyr. 95. 

206 Another splendour on his mouth alii., 



And as a dying meteor stains a wreath 

Of moonlight vapour, which the cold night clips, 

It flashed through his pale limbs, and pass'd to its eclipse 

—Adon. XII. 

207 Like winged stars the fire-flies flash and glance, ^ 
Pale in the open moonshine, but each one 

Under the dark trees seems a. little sun, 

A meteor tamed ; — Letter to M. G. 281. 

208 And the marsh meteors, like tame l^easts, at night 

Came licking with blue tongues his veined feet ; —Mar. XX. 

209 And the marsh meteors .... 

And he would watch them, as, like spirits bright. 

In many entangled figures quaint and sweet 

To some enchanted music they would dance, — Mar. XX. 

210 From Prospero's enchanted cell, 
As the mighty verses tell, 

To the throne of Naples, he 

Lit you o'er the trackless sea 

Flitting on, your prow before, 

Like a living meteor. — With a Guitar, 17. 

ill) The Sky. 

•21 1 The other glowing like the vital morn. 
When throned on ocean's wave 
It breathes over the Avorld : — D. W. 5. 



51 



^12 Yet likest evening's vault that faery hall, 

213 As heaven low resting on the wave it spread 

Its flooi's of flashing light, 

Its vast and azure dome ; — D. W. 221. 

214 unfathomable deeps 
Blue as the overhanging heaven, that spread 

And wind among the accumulated steeps ; — Mont. B. 64. 

215 It was a temple, such as mortal hand 
Has never built, nor ecstasy, nor dream, 
Reared in the cities of enchanted land ; 

'Twas likest heaven, ere yet day's purple stream 
Ebbs o'er the western forest, while the gleam 
Of, the unrisen moon among the clouds 
7s gathering, when with many a golden beam 
The thronging constellations rush in crowds, 
Paving with fire the sky and the marmoreal floods. 



-L. ct- C. I. 49. 



216 His eyes were dark and deep, and the clear brow 
Which shadowed them was like the morning sky, 
The cloudless heaven of Spring, when in their flow 
Thro' the bright air, the soft winds as they blow 
Wake the green world — L. 

217 Her looks were sweet as Heaven's when loveliest 
In Autumn eves — L. 



<L' G. I. 59. 



<t- C. V. 50. 

218 alas I from many spirits 
The wisdom that had waked that cry, was fled, 
Like the Ijrief glory which dark Heaven inherits 
From the false dawn, which fades ere it is spread, 
Upon the night's devouring darkness shed : 

—L. 

219 The awful shadow of some unseen Power 

Floats the' unseen among us, — 

Like hues and harmonies of evening 

220 And we breathe, and sicken not, 
The atmosphere of human thought ; 
Be it dim and dark and grey. 
Like a storm-extinguished day. 
Travelled o'er by dying gleams ; 
Be it bright as all between 
Cloudless skies and windless streams. 

Silent, liquid, and serene — Prom. I. 675. 



ct- C. IX. 5. 



-H. I. B. I. 



221 And women, too, frank, beautiful, and kind 

As the free heaven which rains fresh light and dew 

On the wide earth, past ; — Prom. III. iv. 153. 

222 Drinking from thy sense and sight 
Beauty, majesty, and might, 



As a violet's gentle eye 
Gazes on the azure sky 
Until its hue erows like what it beholds 



— Prom. IV. 485. 



ii'L 



223 At the helm sits a Avonian more fair 
Than heaven, when unbinding its star-braided hair, 
It sinks with the sun on the earth and the sea. 

— F*s. of Sea, 66. 

224 The cares we waste upon our heavy crown 
Would make it light and glorious as a wreath 
Of heaven's beams for his dear innocent brow. 

—Ghax. I. 491. 



225 ^yhen tlie north wind congregates in crowds 
The floating mountains of the silver clouds 
From the horizon — and the stainless sky 



Opens beyond them like eternity, 

226 From every point of the Infinite 

Like a thousand dawns on a single night 
The splendours rise and spread 

227 We paused beside the pools that lie 

Under the forest bough. 
Each seemed as 'twere a little sky 
Gulphed in a world below ; 

228 A firmament of purple light 

Which in the dark earth lay 
More boundless than the depth of night 
And purer than the day. 



— Siunmrr and W. 3. 



— Prol. Hell 62. 



-To Jane Recoil. Y. 



-To Jane Recoil. V. 



229 Heaven's ebon vault 

Studded with stars unutterably bright, 
Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, 
Seems like a canopy which love had spread 
To curtain her sleeping world. — Q. 



M. 4. 



{i) Fire. 

230 Thou too, aerial Pile I whose pinnacles 

Point from one shrine like pyramids of fire — Summer Ere, 13. 

231 One seat was vacant in the midst, a throne, 
Reared on a pyi-amid like sculptured flame, 
Distinct with circling steps which rested on 

Their own deep fire — — L. d: C. I. 55. 

232 And fires blazed far amid the scattered camps, 

Like springs of flame, which burst where'er swift Earthquake stamps 

—L. ct- 0. V. 1. 

233 The misery of a madness slow and creeping, 

Wliich made the earth seem fire, — L. <[■ C. VII. 15. 



234 Yet soon bright day will burst — even like a ciiasm 
Of fire, to burn the shrouds outworn and dead, 

Which wrap the world : — L. d- C. IX. 5. 

235 Aloft, her flowing hair like strings of flame did quivei-. 

— L. d- C. XI. 3. 



236 towers far and near 

Pierce like reposing flames the tremulous atmosphere 

— L. ct' C. XII. 5. 

237 Yet, yet, one brief relapse, like the last beam 
Of dying flames, the stainless air around 
Hung silent and serene — a blood-red gleam 
Burst upwards, hurling fiercely from the ground 

The globed smoke,— —L. <b G. XII. 16. 

238 And lief ore that chasm of light. 
As within a furnace bright. 
Column, tower, and dome, and spire, 

239 Shine like obelisks of fire. 
Pointing with inconstant motion 
From the altar of dark ocean 
To the sapphire-tinted skies : 

240 As the flames of sacrifice 

From the marble shrines did rise, 

As to pierce the dome of gold 

Where Apollo spoke of old. — Eug. HilU, 104. 

241 Hither the sound has borne us — to the realm 
Of Demogorgon, and the mighty portal. 

Like a volcano's meteor-breathing chasm, — Prom. II. iii. I. 

242 Pour forth heaven's wine, Idalian Ganymede, 

And let it fill the Daedal cups like fire. — Prom. III. i. 25. 

243 The unseen clouds of the dew, which lie 

Like fire in the flowers till the sun rides high, — -Sens. P. I. 86 

244 And the green lizard, and the golden snake. 

Like unimprisoned flames, out of their trance awake. 

— AdoiKj iVUI. 

245 And grey walls moulder round on which dull Time 
Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand ; 

And one keen pyramid with edge sublime, 
Pavilioning the dust of him who planned 
This refuge for his memory, doth stand 

246 Like flame transformed to marble ; — Adon. L. 

247 And then — as if the earth and sea had been 
Dissolved into one lake of fire, were seen 

248 Those mountains towering as from waves of flame, 
Around the vaporous sun, from which there came 
The inmost purple spirit of light, and made 

Their verj^ peaks transjiarent — Jid. d- M. 80. 

249 Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is — 
Each flame of it is as a precious stone 

Dissolved in ever-moving light, — Witch, XXVII. 

250 In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie 

Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odour it is yet 

And fiom tliy touch like fire doth leap — Const. I. 



54 

251 There must have lived within Marenghi's heart 
That fire, more warm and bright than life or hope, 

—Mar. XVIII. 

252 When memory came 

(For years gone by leave each a deepening shade), 

His spirit basked in its internal flame, 

As when tlie black storm hurries round at night 

The fisher basks beside his red firelight — Mar. XXV. 

(/) Eyes. 

253 Life, and the lustre that consumed it, shone 
As in a furnace burning secretly 

From his dark eyes alone. — Ala-st. 252. 

254 ! there are spirits of the air, 

And genii of the evening breeze. 
And gentle ghosts, with eyes as fair 

As star-beams among twilight trees : — To Coler. 1. 

255 Then she arose, and smiled on me with eyes 
Serene yet sorrowing, like that planet fair, 
While yet the daylight lingereth in the skies 
Which cleaves with arrowy beams the dark red air, 

— L. d- C. I. 21. 



L. ct' C. I. 56. 



256 Small serpent eyes trailing from side to side. 
Like meteors on a river's grassy shore, — 

257 an eye of blue 
Looked into mine, like moonlight, soothingly : 

— L. d.- C. I. 58. 

258 her dark and deepening eyes, 
Which, as twin phantoms of one star that lies 
O'er a dim well, move, though the star reposes, 

Swam in our mute and liquiil ecstasies, — L. li- C. VI. 3.3<. 

259 A voiceless thought of evil, which did spread 

With the quick glance of eyes, like withered lightnings shed. 

— />. ct- C. X. 16. 

260 her dark and intricate eyes 

261 Orb within orb deeper than sleep or death, 
Absorbed the glories of the burning skies, 
Which, mingling with lier heart's deep ecstasies. 

Burst from her looks and gestures : — L. ct- C. XI. 5. 

262 his eyes are mild 
And calm, and like the moi'n about to break. 

Smile on mankind — — L. d' G. XII. 3. 

263 And his keen eyes glittering through mine. 
Filled me with the flame divine. 

Which in their orbs was burning far, 
Like the light of an unmeasured star. 
In the sky of midnight dark and deep : — /?. d- H. 1134. 



55 

264 I feel, I see 

Those eyes which burn thro' suiiles that fade in tears, 
Like stars half quenched in mists of silver dew. 

—Pro7n. II. i. 27- 

265 Thine eyes are like the deep, blue, boundless heaven 
Contracted to two circles underneath 

Their long, fine lashes ; dark, far, measureless, 
Orb within orb, and line thro' line inwoven. 

—Prom. II. i. 114. 

266 the young spirit 

That guides it has the dovelike eyes of hope ; 

— Prom. II. iv. 159.. 

267 The terrors of his eye illumined heaven 

With sanguine light, through the thick ragged skirts 

Of the victorious darkness as he fell ; 

Like the last glare of day's red agony. 

Which, from a rent among the fiery clouds. 

Burns far along the tempest-wrinkled deep — Prom. III. ii, 4., 

268 And 3'our eyes are as love which is veiled not ? 

—Prom. IV. 92. 

269 Be your wounds like eyes 

To weep for the dead. — Ode 3.. 

270 With those clear drops, which start like sacred dew 
From the twin lights thy sweet soul darkens through, 

—EpipK. 142. 

271 And then came one of sweet and earnest looks. 
Whose soft smiles to his dark and night-like eyes 

272 Were as the clear and ever-living brooks 

Are to the obscure fountains whence they rise 

Showing how pure they are ; — Cane. Adon. 1. 

273 Oh, speak not of her eyes ! which seem 
Twin mirrors of Italian heaven, yet gleam 

With such deep meaning, as we never see 

But in the human countenance ; — Jul. tfc M. 147. 



274 and eyes whose arrowy light 

Shone like the reflex of a thousand minds. 



-Prince Ath. II. i. 4. 



275 Her hair was brown, her sphered eyes were brown, 
And in their dark and liquid moisture swam, 
Like the dim orb of the eclipsed moon, 

— Fraym. Prince Ath. 1_ 

276 Yet when the spirit flashed beneath, there came 
The light from them, as when tears of delight 
Double the western planet's serene flame. 

— Fragm. Prince Ath. 4^ 

277 When Peter heard of his promotion. 

His eyes grew like two stars for bliss ; — Peter B. VII. viL 



56, 

278 deep her eyes, as are 
Two openings of unfathomable night 

Seen through a temple's cloven roof — — Witch, V. 

279 In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie, 

Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn 
Between thy lips, are laid to sleep ; 

280 Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odour it is yet, 

281 And from thy touch like lire doth leap. — ConM. I. 

282 Thrills with her lovely eyes. 
Which like two stars amid the heaving main 

Sparkle through liquid bliss. — Q. M. 38. 

{k) Darkness, Shadow. 

'283 Below, the smoke of roofs involved in flame 

Rested like night, — L. d- G. III. 16. 

284 I watched, unt 1 the shades of evening wrapt 

Earth like an exhalation —L. d- C. III. 18. 

285 confusion, then despair 

Descends like night — L. A- C. V. 7. 

286 O Spirit vast and deep as Night and Heaven ! 

—L. <t' G. V. 51, 2. 

287 her dark hair was dispread 
Like the pine's locks upon the lingering blast. 
Over mine eyes its shadowy strings it spread % 

Fitfully, -L. d- G. VI. 21. 

288 The pitchy smoke of the departed fire 
Still hung in many a hollow dome and spire 

Above the towers like night ; — L. A- G. XII. 26. 

289 Sometimes through forests, deep like niglit, we glode, 

—L. d- a. XII. 35. 

2JK) I bear a darker, deadlier gloom 

291 Than the earth's shade, or interlunar air, 

292 Or constellations quenched in murkiest cloud, 

— Genci, II. i. 189. 

293 When its wound was closed, there stood 

Darkness o'er the day like blood. — Prom. I. 101. 

294 Sister, I hear the thunder of new wings 

their shadows make 
The space within my plumes more black than night. 

— Prom. I. 521. 

295 I see a mighty darkness 
Filling the seat of power, and rays of gloom 
Dart round, as light from tV>e meridian sun, 

Ungazed upon and shapeles. — Prom. II. iv. 2. 



57 

296 That terrible shadow floats 
Up from its throne, as maj' the lurid smoke 

Of earthquake-ruined cities o'er the sea. — Prom. II. iv. 150. 

297 Peace ! peace ! A mighty Power which is as darkness, 
Is rising out of Earth, and from the sky 

298 Is showered like night, and from within the air 

299 Bursts, like eclipse which had been gathered up 

Into the pores of sunlight ; — Prom. IV. 510. 

300 To forgive wrongs darker than death or night ; 

—Prom. IV. 571. 

301 Six the thunder has smitten, 

And they lie back as mummies on which Time has written 

His scorn of the embalmer ; — Vinon of S. 61. 

302 Black as a cormorant the screaming blast — Vision of S. 105. 

303 armies mingled in obscure array, 

Like clouds with clouds, darkening the sacred bowers 

Of serene heaven — Ode. to Lib. XII. 

304 The future looks as black as death, a cloud, 

305 Dark as the frown of Hell hangs over it — — (Ed. Tyr. 96. 

306 And others said that such mysterious grief 
From God's displeasures like a darkness, fell 
On souls like his which owned no higher law 

Than love ; —Prince Ath. I. 93. 

307 but o'er the visage wan 
Of Athanase, a ruffling atmosphere 

Of dark emotion, a swift shadow ran. 

Like wind upon some forest-bosomed lake, 

Glassy and dark, — — Prince Ath. II. ii. 47. 

308 the flagging wing 

Of the roused cormorant in the lightning flash 

Looked like the wreck of some wind-wandering 

Fragment of inky thunder-smoke — Witch, L. 

309 And o'er what seemed the head a cloud-like crane 
Was bent, a dim and faint aetherial gloom 

Tempering the light. — Tr. of L. 91. 

310 And Gregory and Jolin and men divine 

Who rose like shadows between man and (;lod — Tr. of L. 288. 

311 And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night 

In the van of the morning light — Lib. IV. 

312 A portal as of shadowy adamant 

Stands yawning on the highwaj^ of the life 
Which we all tread, a cavern huge and gaunt ; 
Around it rages an unceasing strife 

313 Of shadows, like the restless clouds that haunt 

The gap of some cleft mountain, lifted high 

Into the whirlwinds of the upper sky. — Alley. I. 



58 

314 A firmament of purple light 

Which in the dark earth lay 
More boundless than the depth of night, 

And purer than the day. — To Jane Rec. 57. 

(I) White Light, Pallor. 

some, whose white hair shone 

315 Like mountain snow — L. <i: C. I. 54. 

316 Let tortures strain the truth till it be white 

As snow thrice sifted by the frozen wind — Cenci, V. ii. 170. 

Cities then 

317 Were built, and through their snow-like columns flowed 

The warm winds — Prom. II. iv. 94. 

318 From its curved roof the mountain's frozen tears 

319 Like snow, or silver, or long diamond spires, 

320 Hung downwards, raising forth a doubtful light. 

— Prom. III. iii. 15. 

321 Within it sits a winged infant, white 

Its countenance, like the whiteness of bright snow ; 

322 Its plumes are as the feathers of sunny frost. 

Its limbs gleam white, through the wind-flowing folds 

Of its white robe, woof of a^therial pearl. 

Its hair is white, the brightness of white light 

Scattered in strings, yet its two eyes are heavens 

Of liquid darkness, — Prom. IV. 219. 

323 The lilies were drooping, and white, and wan 

Like the head and the skin of a dying man — Sens. PL III. 28. 

his hair and beard 

324 Are whiter than the tempest-sifted snow. — Hell. 140. 

325 O pallid as Death's dedicated bride, 

Thou mockery which art sitting by my side, 

Am I not wan like thee ? — Jul. and Madd. 384. 

326 Last came Anarchy : he rode 

On a white horse splashed with blood ; 

He was pale even to the lips 

Like Death in the Apocalypse — Mash, VIII. 

327 From the workhouse and the prison. 
Where pale as corpses newly risen, 
Women, children, young and old. 

Groan for pain and weep for cold. — Mask, LXVIIL 

328 Her lips and cheeks were like things dead, so pale — Sunset. 

329 His hands were clasped, veined and pale as snow. — Tass. 22. 

330 And their mothers look pale, like the white shore 

Of Albion free no more — Lines, Vol. IV. i. 16. 

331 The wreaths of stony myrtle, ivy and pine. 
Like winter leaves o'ergrown by moulded snow 

— Ode to Nap. 17. 



59 

when the prow 

332 Made the invisible water white as snow. — Ode to Xap. 42. 

{m) General. 

333 Like restless sei'pents, clothed 
In rainbows and in fire, the parasites, 

Starred with ten thousand blossoms, flow around 

The grey trunks. — Alast. 438. 

334 Hither the poet came, his eyes beheld 

Their own wan light through the reflected lines 

Of his thin hair, distinct in the dark depth 

Of that still fountain ; as the human heart 

Gazing in dreams over the gloomy grave, 

Sees its own treacherous likeness there. — Alast. 469. 

335 Must that divinest form 



whose azure veins 
Steal like dark streams along a fleld of snow, 

336 Whose outline is as fair as marble clothed 

In light of some divinest mind, decay ? — D. W . 12. 

337 Ardent and pure as day thou burnest — D. W. 92. 

338 bright scales did leap 
Where'er the Eagle s talons made their way. 

Like sparks into the darkness — L. ct- C. I. 11. 

339 Their sun-like form 
Upon the combat shone — a light to save 

Like Paradise spread forth beyond the shadowy grave 

— L. d- G. I. 32. 

340 Mountains of ice, like sapphire, piled on high 
Hemming the horizon round, in silence lay 

On the still waters — L. <t- C. I. 47. 

341 The radiance of whose limbs rose-like and warm 

Flowed forth —L. A: G. I. 57. 

342 did my spirit wake 
From sleep, as many-coloured as the snake 

That girds eternity ? —L. d- G. IV. 4. 

343 As thus the old man spoke, his coiintenance 

Gleamed on me like a spirit's — L. ct- C. IV. 16. 

344 A glorious pageant, more magnificent 

Than kingly slaves arrayed in gold and blood, 

When they return from carnage, — L. tt- G. V. 14. 

345 the King with gathered brow, and lips 
Wreathed by long scorn, did inly sneer and frown 
With hue like that when some great painter dips 
His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse. 

—L. ci- C. V. 23. 



60 

346 As I approached, the morning's golden mist, 
Which now the wonder-stricken breezes kist 
With their cold lips, fled, and the summit shone 
Like Athos seen from Samothracia, drest 

In earliest light by vintagers, — L. cb C. V. 43. 

347 She, like a sjiirit through the darkness shining, 

—L. ct' G. V. 52. 

348 Thro' which, his way the diver having cloven. 
Past like a spark sent up out of a burning oven. 

—L. ct- C. VII. 11. 

349 as a friend whose smile 
Like light and rest at morn and even is sought. 

That wild bird was to me, —L. d; C. VII. 14. 

350,351 And brows as bright as spring or morning, ere 
Dark time had there its evil legend wrought 
In characters of cloud which wither not — L. d.' C. VIII. 29. 

352 But one was mute, her cheeks and lips most fair 
Changing their hues like lilies newly blown. 
Beneath a bright acacia's shadowy hair, 
Waved by the wind amid the sunny noon, 

Showed that her soul, was quivering ; — L. d- C. Vlll. 30. 

353 Thy motJier Autumn, for whose grave thou bearest 
Fresh flowers, and beams like flowers, with gentle feet. 
Disturbing not the leaves which are her winding-sheet. 

—L. cb C. IX. 22. 

354 The light of such a joy as makes the stare 
Of hungry snakes like living emeralds glow, 

Shone in a hundred human eyes — — L. ct C. XI. 25. 

355 A woman sits thereon, 
Fairer it seems than aught that earth can breed. 
Calm, radiant, like the phantom of the dawn, 

A spirit from the caves of daylight wandering gone 

—L. d' a XII. 8. 

356 Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine 
Like a fiend's hope upon his lips and eyne, 

—L. d- C. XII. 11. 

357 And in quick smiles whoso light would come and go. 

Like music o'er wide waves, — L. d- C. XII. 37. 

358 And down my cheeks the quick tears ran 
Like twinkling rain-drops from the eaves. 

When warm Spring showers are passing o'er ; — R. d- H. 366. 

359 For his clieek became, not pale, but fair, 

As rose-o'ershadowed lilies are ; — B. d- H. 819. 

Thy light alone like mist o'er mountains driven, 

360 Or music by the night wind sent 

Thro' strings of some strange instrument. 

Gives grace and truth to life's unijuiet dream — H. I. B. III. 



Gl 

361 With golden-sandalled feet, that glow 
Under plumes of purple dye 

Like rose-ensanguined ivory — Prom. I. 319. 

362 As from the rose which the pale priestess kneels 
To gather for the festal crown of ilowers 

The aerial crimson falls, flushing her cheek. 

So from our victim's destined agony 

The sharle which is our form invests us round, 

Else we are shapeless as our mother Night. — Prom. I. 467. 

363 and thro' yon peaks of cloud -like snow 

The roseate sunlight quivers — Prom. II. i. 24. 

364 Like the spark nursed in embers 

365 Like a diamond, which shines 
Un the dark wealth of mines, 

A spell is treasured but for tliee alone. 

—Prom. II. iii. 84. 

366 How its soft smiles attract the sovd I as light 
Lures winged insects through the lampless air. 

—Prom. II. V. 161. 

367 lone. 

Yet feel you no delight 
From the past sweetness ? 
Panthva. 

As the bare green hill 
When some soft cloud vanishes into rain. 
Laughs with a thousand drops of sunny water 
To the unpavilioned sky ! — Prom. IV. 181. 

368 Some Spirit is darted like a beam from thee, 

Which penetrates my frozen frame, — Prom. IV. 327. 

369 But the bee and the beam-like ephemeris 

Whose path is the lightning's, — Seii.s. P. II. 49. 

3/0 The rose leaves, like flakes of crimson snow 

Paved the turf and moss below — Sen.'i. P. III. 26. 

37 1 a leech 

Fit to suck blood, with lubricous round rings, 

Capaciously expatiative, which make 

His little body like a red balloon, — (Pd. Tyr. 184. 

372 When, like a noon-day dawn, there shone again 
Deliverance. — Epipn. 276. 

373 Athwart that wintry wilderness of thorns 
Flashed from her motion splendour like the Morn's 

—Epipts. 379. 

374 And, as those married lights, wliich from the towers 
Of Heaven look forth, and fold the wandering globe 

In liquid sleep and splendour, as a robe ; — Epip.s. 355. 

375 It is an isle, 'twixt Heaven, Air, Earth, and Sea, 
Cradled and hung in clear tranquillity ; 
Bright as that wandering Eden Lucifer, 

Washed by the soft blue oceans of young air. —Epips. 457. 



62 



376 She rose like an autumnal Night, that springs 
Out of the East and follows wild and drear 

The golden Day, —Adon. XXIII. 

377 the dead live there 

And move like winds of light on dark and stormy air. 

—Adon. XLIV. 

378 Pass till tlie Spirit of tlie spot shall lead 
Thy footsteps to a slope of green access, 
Where, like an infant's smile over the dead, 

A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread. 

—Adon. XLIX. 



379 Thermopyhe and Marathon 

Caught, like mountains beacon-lighted, 
The springing fire. 

380 her hoary ruins glow 
Like Orient mountains lost in day : 

381 To-morrow and to-morrow are as lamps 
Set in our path to light us to the edge 

382 Athens arose ! — around her born. 
Shone like mountains in the morn 
Glorious states ; — 



—Hell. 54. 
—Hell. 84. 
-Hell. 644. 

-Hell. 684. 



383 and when the earth is fair 
The shadow of thy moving wings imbue 

Its deserts and its mountains, till they wear 

Beauty like some bright robe ; — — Prince Ath. II. iv. 8. 

384 Clothed with the Bible, as with light, 



385 For with pomp to meet him came 
Clothed in arms like blood and flame. 
The hired murderers, 

386 a Shape arrayed in mail 
Brighter than the viper's scale, 
And upborne on wings whose grain 

387 Was as the light of sunny rain. 

388 And those plumes the light rained thro' 
Like a shower of crimson dew, 

389 But Peter's verse was clear . 

Like gentle rains, on the dark plains. 
Making that green which late was grey. 



— Mask. VI. 
— Ma.ik. XV. 

-3/asA;. XXVIII. 
—Mask. XXIX. 

-Peter B. V. xiv. 



390 When lamp-like Spain, wiio now relumes her fire 
On Freedom's hearth, grew dim with Empire ; — 

—Letter to M. G. 33. 

391 Carved lamps and chalices, and vials which shone 
In their own golden beams each like a flower. 
Out of whose depth a firefly shakes his light 



Under a cypress in a starlight night. 



Witch, XX. 



63 

392 The silver moon into that winding dell, 

With slanted beam athwart the forest tops, 
Tempered like golden evening, feebly fell ; 

393 A green and glowing light like that which drops 
From folded lilies in which glow-worms dwell 

When earth over her face night's mantle wraps ; 

— Witch, XXXIX. 

394 And it unfurled its heaven- coloured pinions, 

With stars of fire spotting the stream below ; 
And from above into the Sun's dominions 

Flinging a glory, like the golden glow 
In which Spring clothes her emerald-winged minions. 

All interwoven with fine feathery snow 
And moonlight splendour of intensest rime. 
With which frost paints the pines in winter time. 

— Witch, XLIV. 

395 And all the forms in wliich those spirits lay 

Were to her sight like the diaphanous 
Veils, in which those sweet ladies oft array 

Their delicate limbs, , — Witch, LXV. 

396 and the grave 

Of such, when death oppressed the weary soul, 
Was as a green and overarching bower 
Lit by the gems of many a starry flower. — Witch, LXIX. 

397 While the musk-rose leaves, like flakes of crimson snow 
Showered on us, — Fragm. of Drama, 67. 

398 And poured upon the eartli within the vase 
The element with which it overflowed, 

399 Brighter than morning light, and purer than 
The waters of the Springs of Himalah. 

— Fragm. of Drama, 147. 

400 And day by day, green as a gourd in June, 

The plant grew fresh and thick, — Fragm. of Drama, 161. 

401 its stem and tendrils seemed 
Like emerald snakes, mottled and diamonded. 
With azure mail and streaks of woven silver ; 

— Frugm. of Drama, 163. 

402 And all the sheaves that folded the soft buds 

Rose like the crest of cobradi-capel. — Fragm. of Drama, 166. 

403 You almost saw 
The pulses 

With which the purple velvet flower was fed 

To overflow, and like a poet's heart 

Changing bright fancy to sweet sentiment. 

Changed half the light to fragrance. — Fragm. of Drama, 172. 

404 and it seemed 

In hue and form that it had been a mirror 

Of all the hues and forms around it. — Fragm. of Drama, 218. 

405 What thinkest thou of this quaint mask which turns. 
Like morning from the shadow of the night, 

The night to day, —Chas. I. I. 2. 



64 

406 Until Heaven's kingdom shall descend on Earth, 
Or P]arth be like a shadow in the light 

Of Heaven absorbed. —Chas. I. III. 28. 

407 for the shade it spread 

Was so transparent, that the scene came through 

As clear as when a veil of light is drawn 

O'er evening hills they glimmer ; — Tr. of L. 30. 

408 And a cold glare, intenser than the noon, 
But icy cold, obscured with blinding light 

The sun, —Tr. of L. 77. 

409 like day she came 

Making the night a dream : — Tr. of L. 389. 

410 the crew 
Seemed in that light, like atomies to dance 

Within a sunljeam — Tr. of L. 445. 

411 And others, like discoloured iiakes of snow 
On fairest bosoms and the sunniest hair. 

Fell, —Tr.ofL.^n. 

412 The eddy whirled her round and round 

Before a gorgeous gate which stood 
Piercing the clouds of smoke which bound 

Its very arch with light like blood ; — Alar. Dream, XVIII. 

413 And, when he saw beneath the sunset's planet 

A black ship walk over the crimson ocean, 
Its pennants streaming on the blasts that fan it. 

Its sails and ropes all tense and without motion. 
Like the dark ghost of the unburied even 
Striding across the orange-coloured heaven. — Mar. XXVII. 

414 Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie 

Loveliness like a shadow. — Medus. I. 

41.5 A light sucii 

As sljepers wear, lulled by the voice they love, — Fiord. 38. 

416 The Giant Powers move. 

Gloomy or bright as the thrones they fill. — Prol. Hell. 69. 

417 Haste thou and fill the waning crescent 

W^ith beams as keen as those which pierced the shadow 

Of Christian night rolled back upon the West — Prol. Hell. 169. 

418 but the weary glare 
Lay like a chaos of unwelcome light 

Vexing the sense with gorgeous undelight, — Giner. 18. 

419 Glow-worms went out on the river's brim. 

Like lamps which a student forgets to trim. — Serch. 22. 

420 Where mighty shapes — pyramid, dome, and tower — 
Gleamed like a pile of crags. — Frag, of Dream, v. 4. 

421 Tears pure as Heaven's rain, — Zucc. X. 



65 



422 Its light within the gloomy breast 

Spreads like a second youth again. — Magn. Lady, IV. 

423 Best and brightest, come away ! 

Fairer far than this fair Day, — To Jane, 1. 

424 Now the last of many days, 

All beautiful and bright as thou, — To Jane, Recoil. 1- 

425 There was a little lawny islet 
By anemone and violet, 

Like mosaic, paven — The I.sle, t. 



SIMILES OF SOUND. 



Music — Words — Silkxce. 



426 Her voice was like the voice of his own soul 
Heard in the calm of thought ; its music long, 

427 Like woven sounds of streams and breezes, held 
His inmost sense suspended in its web 

Of many-coloured woof and shifting hues. 



-Alast. 53. 



428 Yet, a little, ere it fled, 
Did he resign his high and holy soul 

To images of the majestic past, 

That paused within his passive being now. 

Like winds that bear sweet music, when they breathe 

Through some dim lattice chamber. — Alaat. 627. 

429 Hark ! whence that wondrous sound ? 

'Tis like a wondrous strain that sweeps 
Around a lonely ruin 
When west winds sigh and evening waves respond 

In whispers from the shore. — D. W. 48. 

430 Hark ! whence that rushing sound ? 

'Tis wilder than the unmeasured notes 

Which from the unseen lyres of dells and groves 

The genii of the breezes sweep. — D. W. 53. 

431 Such sounds as breathed around like odorous winds 

Of wakening spring arose, — D. W. 75. 

432 whence from secret springs 
The source of human thought its tribute brings 
Of waters —with a sound but half its own, 

Such as a feeble brook will oft assume 

In the wild woods, among the mountains lone, 

Where waterfalls around it leap for ever. 

Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river 

Over its rocks ceaselessly bursts and raves. — Mont. B. 4. 

5 



66 

433 Or where with sound like many voices swtet, 

Waterfalls leap among wild islands green, — Ded. L. tt- C. II. 

434 One voice came forth from many a mighty spirit, 
Which was the echo of three thousand years ; 
And the tumultuous world stood mute to hear it, 
As some lone man who in a desert hears 

The music of his home : — Ded. L. d: C. XIII. 

435 Her voice was like the wildest saddest tone 

Yet sweet, of some loved voice heard long ago. — L. ((■ C. I. 22. 

436 suddenly 
She would arise, and like tlie secret bird 
Whom sunset wakens, fill the shore and sky 

With her sweet accents — a wild melody ! — L. ib C. II. 28. 

437 Triumphant strains which, like a spirit's tongue, 
To the enchanted waves that child of glorv sung. 

— /.. c£- G. II. 28. 

438 When from that stony gloom a voice arose, 
Solemn and sweet as when low winds attune 

The midnight pines ; — L. d: C. III. 28. 

439 the chain, with sound 

Like earthquake, through the chasm of that steep stair did bound, 

—L. d- C. III. 29. 

440 a trance which awes 

The thoughts of men with hope — as when the sound 

Of whirlwind, whose fierce blasts the waves and clouds confound. 

Dies suddenly, the mariner in fear 

Feels silence sink upon his heart — thus bound 

The conquerors pause, — L. d- C. IV. 27. 

441 Like a bright ghost from Heaven that shout did scare 

The slaves, —L. d: G.Y.I. 

442 As we approached a shout of joyance sprung 
At once from all the crowd, as if the vast 
And peopled Earth its boundless skies among 
The sudden clamour of delight had cast. 

When from before its face some general wreck had past. 

—L. J; G. V. 15. 

443 like a tomb 
Its sculptured walls vacantly to the strokes 

Of footfalls answered, — L. <£• G. V. 22. 

444 It was a tone 
Such as sick fancies in a new-made grave 

Might hear. • —L. d: G. V. 27. 

445 like the rush of showers 
Of hail in spring, pattering along the ground. 
Their many footsteps fell, else came no sound 

From the wide multitude : — L. <£• G. V. 29 

446 Slowly the silence of the multitudes 
Past, as when far is heard in some lone dell 
The gathering of a wind among the woods — 



—L. d- C. V. 31. 



67 

447 To hear the restless multitude forever 
Around the base of that great Altar flow, 
As on some islet burst and shiver 

Atlantic waves; — L. d: C. V. 41. 

448 To feel the dream-like music, which did swim 

449 Like beams thro' floating clouds on waves below, 
Falling in pauses from that Altar dim, 

As silver-sounding tongues breathed an aerial hymn. 

—L. d- C. V. 41. 

but blind 

450 And silent, as a breathing corpse did fare 

451 Leaning upon my friend, till like a wind 

To fevered cheeks, a voice flowed o'er my troubled mind. 

—L. d.- C. V. 45. 

452 Like music of some minstrel heavenly-gifted 
To one whom friends enthral, this voice to me ; 

—L. d- C. V. 46. 

She like a spirit through the darkness shining 
In tones whose sweetness silence did prolong, 

453 As if to lingering winds they did belong. 

Poured forth her inmost soul : — L. d' C. V. 52. 

454 Her voice was as a mountain stream which sweeps 
The withered leaves of autumn to the lake, 

And in some deep and narrow bay then sleeps 

In the shadow of the stones ; — L. d- C. V. 53. 

4.55 And heard her musical pants, like the sweet source 

Of waters in the desert, —L d- C. VL 20. 

456 the sound as of a Spirit's tongue. 

—L. d- C. VI. 32. 

457 The tones of Cythna's voice like echoes were 

Of those far-murmuring streams. — L. d- C. VL 42. 

458 The Tyrant heard her singing to her lute 
A wild, and sad, and spirit-thrilling lay, 

Like winds that die in wastes — — L. d: C. VII. 4. 

459 and they began to breathe 
Deep curses, like the voice of flames far underneath 

—L. d- C. VII. 7. 

460 a sound arose like thunder. 

—L. d: G. VII. 10. 

461 from your hearts 
I feel an echo ; thro' my inmost frame 

Like sweetest sound, seeking its mate, it darts 

~L. d; C. VIII. 17. 

462 The very darkness shook, as with a blast 

Of subterranean thunder at the cry ; — L. d; C. VIII. 28. 

463 they heard the startling cry. 
Like earth's own voice lifted unconquerably 

To all her children, —L. d: C. IX. 3. 



68 

464 So from that cry over th3 boundless hills 
Sudden was caught one universal sound. 
Like a volcano's voice, whose thunder fills 

Remotest skies — • — L. A- C. IX. 4^ 

465 And like a subterranean wind that stirs 
Some forest among caves, the hopes and fears 
From every human soul, a murmur strange 

Made as I past ; — L. ct- C. IX. 6, 

466 A pause of hope and awe the city bound 
Which, like the silence of a tempest's birth 
When in its awful shadow it has wound 
The sun, the wind, the ocean, and the earth. 

Hung terrible, ere yet the lightnings have leapt forth 

—L. A C. IX. 11. 

467 thine own wild songs which in the air 

Like homeless odours floated, — L. d: C. IX. 12. 

468 from many a dale 

The antelopes who flocked for food have spoken 

With happy sounds, and motions, that avail 

Like man's own speech ; — L. <(■ C. X. 2. 

469 For, from the utmost realms of earth, came pouring 
The banded slaves whom every despot sent 

At that throned traitor's summons, like the roaring 

Of fire, whose floods the wild deer circumvent 

In the scorched pastures of the South, so bent 

The armies of the leagued kings around 

Their files of steel and flames ; — — L. <t C. X. 4. 

470 when fi'om beneath a cowl 

A voice came forth, which pierced like ice thro' every soul, 

—L. & C. X. 3L 

471 His voice was like a blast that burst the portal 

Of fabled hell ; —L. A- C. X. 40. 

472 some kissed their marble feet, with moan 

Like love, and died, —L. d- C. X. 48. 

473 When the last echo of those terrible cries 
Came from a distant street like agonies 

Stifled afar.— —L. d- C. XL 13. 

474 There was such silence through the host, as when 
An earthquake trampling on some populous town 
Has crushed ten thousand with one tread, and men 

Expect the second ; — L. ct C. XII. 6. 

475 in that dread pause, he lay 

As in a quiet dream — — L. <t' C. XII. 7. 

476 they hear 

The tramp of hoofs like earthquake, — L. d- C. XII. 8. 

477 a gathering shout 

Bursts like one sound from the ten thousand streams 

Of a tempestuous sea : — — L. d- C. XII. 10, 



69 

478 a blood -red gleam 

Burst upwards, hurling fiercely from the ground 

The globed smoke, 1 heard the mighty sound 

Of its iiprise, like a tempestuous ocean ; — L. d; C. XII. 16. 

479 slowly there is heard 
The music of a breath-suspending song, 
Which, like the kiss of love when life is young, 
Steeps the faint ej'es in darkness sweet and deep ; 
With ever-changing notes it floats along, 

Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep 

480 A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap. 

-L. ct' C. XII. 17. 

481 Like the autumn wind, when it unbinds 
The tangled locks of the nightshade's hair. 
Which is twined in the sultry summer air 
Round the walls of an outworn sepulchre, 
Did the voice of Helen, sad and sweet. 
And the sound of her heart that ever beat. 
As with sighs and words she breathed on her, 
Unbind the knots of her friend's despair 

Till her thoughts were free to float and flow ; 
And from her labouring bosom now, 

482 Like the bursting of a prisoned flame. 

The voice of a long-pent sorrow came. —B. d: H. 207. 

483 his words could bind 

Like music the lulled crowd, — K. A II. 636. 

484 And said, with voice that made them shiver. 

And clung like music in my brain, — R. (£• H. 890. 

485 And light and sound ebbed from the earth. 
Like the tide of the full and weary sea 

To the depths of its own tranquillity — B. A; H. 970. 

486 till new emotions came. 
Which seemed to make each mortal frame 
One soul of interwoven flame, 

A life in life, a second birth 

In worlds diviner far than earth. 

Which, like two strains of harmony 

That mingle in the silent sky. 

Then slowly disunite, passed by 

And left the tenderness of tears. 

The soft oblivion of all fears, 

A sweet sleep : — B. tfc H. 977. 

487 The melody of an old air 

Softer than sleep. —B. ct- H. 1098. 

488 Daylight on its last purple cloud 

Was lingering grey ; and soon her strain 

The nightingale began, now loud. 

Climbing in circles the windless sky. 

Now dying music ; suddenly 

'Tis scattered in a thousand notes. 

And now to the hushed ear it floats 

Like field smells known in infancy. 

Then failing, soothes the air again.. — B. A: H. 1103. 



70 

489 like spirit his words went 

Through all my limbs with the speed of fire ; — B. d- II. 1132. 

490 Or the whii'lwind up and down 

Howling, like a slaughtered town, — I^i'y- Hills, 56, 

491 and Ocean 
Welcomed him with such emotion 
That its joy grew his, and sprung 
From his lips like music flung 

O'er a mighty thunder-fit 

Chastening terror : — Eug. Hills, ITS. 

492 The awful shadow of some unseen Power 

Floats, though unseen, among us 



Like memory of music fled — //. /. B. 1. 

493 There shall be lamentation heard in Heaven 

As o'er an angel fallen — Cenci, IV. i. 18o. 

494 Hark, 'tis the castle horn ; my (ilod, it sounds 

Like the last trump — Cenci, IV. iii. 57. 

495 Brother, lie down with me upon the rack, 

And let us each be silent as a corpse ; — Cenci, V. iii. 48. 

496 Ha, what an awful whisper rises up ! 

'Tis scarce like sound ; it tingles thro' the frame 

As lightning tingles, hovering ere it strike. — Prom. I. 132. 

497 These solid mountains quiver with tlie sound 

Even as the tremulous air — Prom. I. 522. 

498 Your call was as a winged car 

Driven on whirlwinds fast and far ; — Prom. I. 525. 

499 His words outlived him, like swift poison 

Withering up truth, peace and pity — Prom. I. 548. 

500 Hark, sister ! what a low yet dreadful groan 
Quite unsuppressed is tearing up the heart 
Of the good Titan, as storms tear the deep, 

501 And beasts hear the sea moan in inland caves — Prom. I. 578. 

502 Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes : — Prom. 1. 632. 

503 Only a sense 
Remains of them, like the Omnipotence 
Of music, when the inspired voice and lute 
Languish, ere yet the responses are mute, 
Which thro' the deep and labyrinthine soul, 

504 Like echoes thro' long caverns, wind and roll. — Prom. I. 801' 

505 and his voice fell 
Like music which makes giddy the dim brain. 

Faint with intoxication of keen joy, — Prom. II. i. 65. 

506 I could hear 

His voice, whose accents lingered ere they died 

Like footsteps of weak melody : — Prom. II. i. 87. 



71 

507 Thou speakest, but thy words 

Are as the air ; I feel them not. — Prom. II. i. 108. 

508 A wind arose among the pines ; it shook 

The clinging music from their boughs, and then 

Low, sweet, faint sounds, like the farewell of ghosts 

Were heard : — Prom. II. i. 156. 

509 When thei'e is heard thro' the dim air 
The rush of wings, and rising there 
Like many a lake -surrounded flute 
Sounds overflow the listener's brain 

So sweet that joy is almost pain. — Prom. II. ii. 36. 

510 There those enchanted eddies play 

Of echoes, music-tongued, which draw, 

By Demogorgon's mighty law, 

With melting rapture or sweet awe. 

All spirits on that secret way ; 

As inland boats are driven to Ocean 

Down streams made strong with mountain thaw. 

—Prom. II. ii. 41. 

511 The storm of sound is driven along. 
Sucked up and hurrying ; as they fleet 
Behind, its gathering billows meet 
And to the fatal mountain bear 

Like clouds amid the yielding air. — Prom. II. ii. 59. 

512 The vale is girdled with their walls. A howl 
Of cataracts from their thaw-cloven ravines, 
Satiates the listening wind, continuous, vast. 

Awful as silence. —Prom. II. iii. 33. 

While the sound whirls around, 
Down, down ! 

513 As the fawn draws the hound, 

514 As the lightning the vapour, 

515 As a weak moth the taper : 
516,517 Death, despair; love, sorrow: 
518,519 Time both : to-day, to-morrow : 

520 As steel obeys the spirit of the stone, 

Down, down ! — Prom. II. iii. 63. 

5-1 But thy voice sounds low and tender 
Like the fairest, for it folds thee 

From the sight, that liquid splendour — Prom. II. V. 61. 

522 And from the flower-inwoven soil divine 
Ye all-triumphant harmonies arise. 

As dew from earth under the twilight stars ; 
Drink ! be the nectar circling thro' your veins 
The soul of joy, ye ever-living Gods, 
Till exultation burst in one wide voice 

523 Like music from Elysian winds. — Prom. III. i. 27. 

524 And we will search, with looks and words of love, 
For hidden thoughts, each lovelier than the last, 
Our unexhausted spirits ; and like lutes 
Touched by the skill of the enamoured wind ; 



72 

Weave harmonies divine, yet ever new, 
From difference sweet where discord cannot be. 
And hither come, sped on the charmed winds ; 
525 Which meet from all the points of heaven, as bees 
From every flower aerial Enna feeds, 
At their known island-homes in Hiniera, 
The echoes of the human world, — Prom. III. iii. 84. 

i526 this is the mystic shell ; 

See the pale azure fading into silver 
Lining it with a soft yet glowing light ; 
Looks it not like lulled music sleeping there ? 

—Prom. III. iii. 70. 

527 Thou breathe into the many-folded shell. 
Loosening its mighty music ; it shall be 

As thunder mingled with clear echoes ; — Prom. Ill, iii. 80. 

528 The pine boughs are singing 
Old songs with new gladness. 
The billows and fountains 
Fresh music are flinging 

Like the notes of a spirit from land and from sea : 

— Prom. IV. 48. 

529 See, where the Spirits of the human mind 

Wrapt in sweet sounds, as in bright veils, approach. 

—Prom. IV. 81. 

530 Listen too. 
How every pause is tilled with under-notes. 
Clear, silver, icy, keen awakening tones, 
Which pierce the sense, and live within the soul, 
As the sharp stars pierce winter's crystal air 

And gaze upon themselves within the sea. —Prom. IV. 188. 

531 Two visions of strange radiance float upon 
The ocean-like enchantment of strong sound. 
Which flows intenser, keener, deeper yet 
Under the ground and tlirough the windless air. 

— Prom. IV. 202. 

532 which as they roll 

Over the grass, and flowers, and waves, wake sounds 

Sweet as a singing rain of silver dew. — Prom. IV. 233. 

533 Oh, gentle Moon, the voice of thy delight 
Falls on me like thy clear and tender light 
Soothing the seaman borne the summer night 

Through isles forever calm ; — Prom. IV. 495. 

534 I rise as from a bath of sparkling water, 
A bath of azure light, among dark rocks, 

Out of the stream of sound. —Prom. IV. 503. 

535 Ah, me ! sweet sister. 
The stream of sound has ebbed away from us. 
And you pretend to rise out of its wave, 
Because your words fall like the clear, soft dew 
Shaken from a bathing wood-nvmph's limbs and hair. 

— Prom. IV. 505. 



73 

536 And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blvie, 
Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew 
Of music so delicate, soft, and intense, 

It was felt like an odour within the sense. — Sen-'>. P. I. 25. 

The quivering vapours of dim noon-tide, 
Which like a sea o'er the warm earth glide. 
In which every sound, and odour, and beam, 

537 Move, as reeds in a single stream ; — Sen-t. P. I. 90. 

538 He had toi'n the cataracts from the hills, 

And they clanked at his girdle like manacles : — Sem. P. III. 92. 

539 a loud, long, hoarse cry 
Bursts at once from their vitals tremendously, 

Ahd 'tis borne down the mountainous vale of the wave, 
Rebounding like thunder, from crag to cave, — F^.v. q/'»SVa, 94. 

540 the whirl and the splash 

As of some hideous engine whose brazen teeth smash 
The thin winds and soft waves into thunder ; the screams 
And hissings crawl fast o'er the smooth ocean streams, 

541 Each sound like a centipede. — Vis. of Sen. 144. 

542 Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight. 

Keen as are the arrows 

Of that silver sphere. 
Whose intense lamp narrows 

In the white dawn clear, 
Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there. 

543 All the earth and air 

W^ith thy voice is loud. 
As, when night is bare. 
From one lonely cloud 
The moon i-ains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed. 

544 From rainbow clouds there flow not 

Drops so bright to see, 
As from thy presence showers a rain of melody. 

545 Like a poet hidden 

In the light of thought, 
Singing hymns unbidden, 
Till the world is wrought 
To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not : 

546 Like a high-born maiden 

In a palace-tower, 

Soothing her love-laden 

Soul in secret hour 

547 With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower : 

5-18 Like a glow-worm golden 

In a dell of dew. 
Scattering unbeholden 
Its aerial hue 
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view : 



74 

549 Like a rose embowered 

In its own green leaves, 
By warm winds deflowered, 
Till the scent it gives 
Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-winged thieves. 

—Skylark, 33. 

550 My song, its pinions di-=arrayed of night, 

Drooped ; o'er it closed the echoes far away 
Of the great voice which did its flight sustain 
As waves which lately paved his watery way 
Hiss round a drowner's head in their tempestuous play. 

—Ode 10 Lib. XIX. 

551 The beast 

Has a loud trumpet like the Scarabee, — (Ed. Tyr. 156. 

552 Dinging and singing, 
From slumber I rung her, 

Loud as the clank of an iron-monger ; — (Ed. Tyr. 236. 

553 and j^our cries 
More dulcet and syniphonious than the bells 

Of village towers on sunshine holiday, — (Ed. Tyr. 122. 

554 And from her lips, as from a hyacinth full 

555 Of honey-dew, a liquid murmur drops, 
Killing the sense with passion ; sweet as stops 

Of planetary music heard in trance. — Epips. 83. 

556 Such difference without discord, as can make 
Those sweetest sounds, in which all spirits shake 

As trembling leaves in a continuous air ? — Epips. 144. 

557 And music from her respiration spread 

Like light,— —Epips. 329, 

558 And every motion, odour, beam, and tone 
With that deep music is in unison : 
Which is a soul within the soul — they seem 

Like echoes of an ante-natal dream. — Epips. 453. 

559 Rekindled all the fading melodies. 

With which, like flowers that mock the corse beneath, 
He had adorned and hid the coming bulk of death. 

-Adon. IL 

560 And love taught grief to fall like music from his tongue 

—Adon. XXX. 



And ever as he went he swept a lyre ' 

561 Now like the ... of impetuous fire 
Which shakes the forest with its murmurings, 

562 Now like the rush of the aerial wings 
Of the enamoured wind among the treen 

Whispering unimaginable things, — Cane. Adon. L 

563 Breathe low, low 
The words which, like secret fire, shall glow 

Through the veins of the frozen earth — — Hell. 31. 



75 

564 When the fierce shout of Allah-ilia- Allah I 
Rose like the warciy of the northern wind 
Which kills the sluggish clouds, and leaves a flock 

Of wild swans struggling with the naked storm — Hell. 290. 

565 Through the city 

Like birds before a storm, the Santons shriek, —Hell. 590. 

566 Thy words stream like a tempest 
Of dazzling mist within my brain — they shake 

567 The earth on which I stand, and hang like night 

On Heaven above me — — Hell. 786. 

568 And crash of brazen mail as of the wreck 

Of adamantine mountains — — Hell. 821. 

569 The sound of their oceans, the light of their sky. 
The music and fragrance their solitudes breathe, 
Burst, like morning on dream, or like heaven on death 

Through the walls of our prison ; — Hell. 1055. 

570 And, from the waves, sound like delight broke forth 
Harmonizing with solitude, — Jul. <{• M. 25. 

571 And those are his sweet strains which charm the weight 
From madmen's chains, and make this Hell appear 

A Heaven of sacred silence hushed to hear. — Jul. <{• M. 259. 

572 I do but hide 
Under these words like embers, every spark 

Of that which has consumed me. — Jul. tt- M. 503. 

573 their thousand voices rose, 
They passed like aimless arrows from his ear. 

— Prince A.l. 52. 

574 the sweet enthusiasm 
Which overflows in notes of liquid gladness. 

Filling the sky like light ! —Prince A. II. ii. 37. 

575 Then Plato's words of light in thee and me 
Lingered like moonlight in the moonless east, 

— Prince A. II. ii. 61. 

576 The waterfalls were voiceless — for their fountains 
Were changed to mines of sunless fountains now, 
Or by the curdling winds, like brazen wings 
Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow. 
Warped into adamantine fretwork, hung 

And filled with frozen light the chasm below. 

— Prince A. II. iii. 25. 

577 Like many a voice of one delight 
The winds, the birds, the ocean floods, 

578 The City's voice itself is soft like Solitudes. — Stanzas in Dej. I. 

579 With step as soft as wind it past — Mask. XXX. 



76 

580 Lastly from the palaces 
Where the murmur of distress 
Echoes, like the distant sound 
Of a wind alive around 

Those prison halls, — Mask: LXX. 

581 Be your strong and simple words 
Keen to wound as sharpened swords, 

582 And wide as targes let them be 

With their shade to cover ye. — Mask: LXXIV. 

583 Let the tyrants pour around 
With a quick and startling sound, 
Like the loosening of the sea 

Troops of armed emblazonry. — Mask. LXXV. 

584 And these words shall then become 
Like oppression's thundered doom 

Ringing through each heart and brain, — Mask: XC. 

585 And her low voice was heard like love, — Witch, V. 

585a All familiar things he touched, ' 

All common words he spoke, became to me 
Like forms or signs of a diviner world. —FroAjm. of Dram. 55. 

586 Your breath is like soft music, your words are 
The echoes of a voice which on my heart 

587 Sleeps like a melody of early days. —Fragm. of Dram. 100. 

588 Soft melodies, as sweet as April rain 

On silent leaves —Fragm. of Dram. 182. 

589 his words, like arrows 
Which know no aim beyond the archer's wit. 

Strike sometimes what eludes philosophy. — Chas. I. II. 105. 

590 My word is as a wall 

Between thee and this world thine enemy — — Chas. I. II. 204. 

591 and that his words 

Sound like the echoes of our saddest fears? —Chas. I. II. 461. 

592 So did that shape its obscure tenour keep 

Beside my path, as silent as a ghost ; — Tr. of L. 432. 

593 Upon my heart thy accents sweet 

Of peace and pity fell like dew 
On flowers half dead ;— —Line.? to M. W. G. IV. 

594 thy voice is as the tone 

Of my heart's echo, — To . 5. 

595 And hark ! a rush as if the deep 

Had burst its bonds ; —M.'s Dream, XIII. 

596 A breathless awe, like the swift change 

Unseen, but felt in youthful slumbers, 
Wild, sweet, but incommunicably strange. 

Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers. 

— To Const. II. 



77 

597 VVliilst, like the world-sunounding air, tliy song 
Flows on, and fills all things with melody. 

Now is thy voice a tempest swift and strong, 
On which, like one in trance upborne, 

Secure o'er rocks and waves I sweep, 
Rejoicing like a cloud of morn. — To Const. IV. 

598 And heaps of fraud-accumulated gold 

Plead, loud as thunder, at Destruction's throne. 

— To Lord Chest. II, 

599 A sweet and creeping sound 

Like the rushing of wings was heard around ; — Fragm. II. 

600 Listen, listen, Mary mine. 

To the whisper of the Apennine, 

It bursts on the roof like the thunder's roar, 

601 Or like the sea on a northern shore. 
Heard in its raging ebb and flow 

By the captives pent in the cave below. — /"as'-s. of Apenn. 1. 

602 And your sweet voice, like a bird 
Singing love to its lone mate 

In the ivy-bower disconsolate — To Mary, 3. 

603 And as a vale is watered by a flood, 

604 Or as the moonlight fill the open sky 

605 Struggling with darkness — as a tuberose 
Peoples some Indian dell with scents which lie 
Like clouds above the flower from which they rose, 
The singing of that happy nightingale 

In this sweet forest, from the golden close 
Of evening, till the star of dawn may fail, 
Was interfused upon the silentness : — Woodin. <L- Niyht, 6. 

606 A silver spirit's form 

It fades, with such a sigh, as sedge 

Breathes o'er the breezy streamlet's edge. — Tas-so. III. 

Lips touched by seraphim 
Breathe out the choral hymn 

607 Sweet as if angels sang, 

608 Loud as that trumpet's clang 

Wakening the world's dead gang — Kat. Anth. VI. 

609 Wrapt in sweet wild melodies 
Like an exhalation wreathing 

To the sound of air low breathing 

Thro' ^olian pines, which make 

A shade and shelter to the lake 

Where it rises soft and slow : — Birth of Pleas. 4. 

610 She went, ever singing 

In murmurs as soft as sleep : — Artth. I. 

611 And heard the autumnal leaves like light footfalls 

Of spirits passing through the street : — Ode to Nap. 2. 



78 

612 What wondrous sound is that, mournful and faint, 
But more melodious than the murmuring wind 

Which through the columns of a temple glides ? — Orph. 35. 

613 But in their speed they bear along with them 
The warning sound, scattering it like dew 

Upon the startled sense. — Orph. 41. 

614 As in a brook, fretted with little waves 

By the light airs of spring — each riplet makes 

A many-sided mirror for the sun, 

Wliile it flows musically thro' green banks, 

Ceaseless and pauseless, ever clear and fresh, 

So flowed his song, reflecting the deep joy 

And tender love that fed those sweetest notes, 

The heavenly offspring of ambrosial food — Orph. 59. 

615 There rose to Heaven a sound of angry song. 
'Tis as a mighty cataract that parts 

Two sister rocks with waters swift and strong, 

And casts itself with horrid roar and din 

Adown a steep : from a perennial source 

It ever flows and falls, and breaks the air 

With loud and fiei-ce, but most harmonious roar. 

And as it falls casts up a vaporous spray 

Which the sun clothes in hues of Iris light. 

Thus the tempestuous torrent of his grief 

Is clothed in sweetest sounds and varying words 

Of poesy. —Orph. 72. 

As I have seen 

616 A fierce sSuth blast tear through the darkened sky, 
Driving along a rack of winged clouds. 

Which may not pause, but ever hurry on, 

As their wild shepherd wills them, while the stars, 

Twinkling and dim, peep from between the plumes. 

Anon the skj- is cleared, and the high dome 

Of serene Heaven, starred with fiery flowers. 

Shuts in the shaken earth ; or tlie still moon 

Swiftly, yet gracefully, begins her walk, 

Rising all In'ight behind the eastern hills. 

I talk of moon, and wind, and stars, and not 

Of song ; but would I echo his high song 

Nature must lend me words ne'er used before, 

Or I must borrow from her perfect works, 

To picture forth his perfect attributes. — Orph. 87. 

617 Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed. 

Murmured like a noon-tide bee, 
Shall I nestle by thy side ? —To Night, IV. 

618 Sad Aziola ! many an eventide 

Thy music I had lieard 
By wood and stream, meadow and mountain-side, 

And lields and marshes wide, 
Such as nor voice, nor lute, nor wind, nor bird, 

The soul ever stirred : — Aziola II. 



79 

and then as one 

619 "Whose sleeping face is stricken by the sun 

With light like a harsh voice, which bids him rise 

And look upon his day of life with eyes 

Which weep in vain that they can dream no more. — Ginev. 50. 

my knell 

620 Will mix its music with that merry bell, 
Does it not sound as if they sweetly said, 

" We toll a corpse out of its marriage bed" ? — Oinev. 76. 

621 A silence fell upon the guests, — a pause 
Of expectation, as when beauty awes 

All hearts with its approach, though unbeheld ; — Oinev. 135. 

622 And silence, and a. sense that lifts the hair 
From the scalp to the ankles, as it were 
Corruption from the spirit passing forth. 

And giving all it shrouded to the earth. — Ginev. 152. 

623 Pour forth the sound like enchanted wine ' — Music, I. 

624 The dissolving strain, through every vein 
Passes into my heart and brain. 

As the scent of a violet withered up, 

Which grew by the brink of a silver lake : 
When the hot noon has drained its dewy cnp. 

And mist there was none its thirst to slake — 
And the violet lay dead while the odour flew 
On the wings of the wind o'er the waters blue. 

625 As one who drinks from a charmed cup 

Of foaming and sparkling and murmuring wine 
Whom a mighty enchantress filling up 

Invites to love with her kiss divine — Music, III. & IV. 

626 No song but sad dirges 

Like the wind through a ruined cell, 

Or the mournful surges 
That ring the dead seaman's knell. — Lines, II. 

628 Now all tlie tree-tops lay asleep 



As still as in the silent deep 

The ocean woods may be — — To Jane Recoil. 29. 

629 As the moon's soft splendour 
O'er the faint cold starlight of heaven 

Is thrown, 
So your voice most tender 
To the strings without soul had then given 

Its own. — To Jane, II. 

630 Thinking over every tone 
Which, though silent to the ear. 
The enchanted heart could hear. 

Like notes which die when born, but still 

Haunt the echoes of the hill ; — In Bay of Lerici, 10. 

631 Hark ! whence that rushing sound ? 

'Tis softer than the west wind's sigh ; — Q. M. 45. 



80 

632 The long and lonely colonnades, 
Through which the ghost of Freedom stalks, 

Seem like a well-known tune, 
Which in some dear scene we have loved to hear. 

Remembered now in sadness. — (^>. M. 11. 168. 

633 How beautiful this night ! the balmiest sigli 
Which vernal zephyrs breathe in evening's ear, 
Were discord to the speaking quietude 

That wraps this moveless scene. — Q. M. IV. 1. 

634 All is deep silence, like the fearful calm 

That slumbers in the storm's portentous pause. — Q. M. IV. 53. 

635 Then dulcet music swelled 
Concordant with the life-strings of the soul ; 

It throbbed in sweet and languid beatings there. 

Catching new life from transitory death, ^ 

Like the vague sighings of a wind at even, 

That wakes the wavelets of the slumbering sea 

And dies on the creation of its breath. 

And sinks and rises, fails and swells by fits : — Q. M. \'III. 19. 



SIMILES OF ODOUR. 

636 but my wings were faint 

With the delights of a remembered dream 

As are the noontide plumes of summer winds 

Satiate with sweet flowers. . — Prom. 11. i. 35. 

6.'U Which breath now rises, as amongst tall weeds 

A violet's exhalation. — Prom. III. iii. 131. 

638 The snow-drop and then the violet, 

Arose from the ground with the warm rain wet, 
And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent 
From the turf, like the voice and the instrument 

— ,S'e»s. PI. I. 13. 

639 The sweetness seems to satiate the faint wind ; 
And in the soul a wild odour is felt. 

Beyond the sense, like fierj' dews that melt 

Into the bosom of a frozen bud. — Epips. 108. 

640 The breath of her false moutli was like faint flowers, 

—Epips. 258. 

641 The light clear element which the isle wears 
Is heavy with the scent of lemon-flowers. 
Which float like mist laden with unseen showers, 

642 And falls upon the eye-lids like faint sleep ; — Epipn. 446. 

643 The odour from the flower has gone 

Which like thy kisses breathed on me ; — Song, I. 



81 

644 and without whom 

This world would smell like what it is — a tomb ; 

-Letter to M. G. 210. 

645 And odours in a kind of aviary 

Of ever-blooming Eden-trees she kept 
Clipt in a floating net, a love-sick Fairy 

Had woven from dew-beams while the moon yet slept, 
As bats at the wired window of a dairy, 

They beat their vans ; —Witch, XVI. 

646 as a tuberose 

Peoples some Indian dell with scents which lie 
Like clouds above the flower from which they rose, 

— Woodm. d- Night. 8. 

647 And the Champak's odours fail 

Like sweet thoughts in a dream : — Ind. ^cren. II. 



SIMILE AND METAPHOR. 

648 Till morning on his vacant mind 

Flashed like strong inspiration. — AlaM. 126. 

649 sleep, 
Like a dark flood suspended in its course. 

Rolled back its impulse on his vacant brain. — Alaat. 189. 

650 and this lore did sway 

Mj' spirit like a storm, contending there al way — L. <(> C. I. 37. 

651 So that when Hope's deep source in fullest flow. 
Like earthquake did uplift the stagnant ocean 

Of human thoughts — mine shook beneath the wide emotion 

—L. d- C. I. 38. 

652 Till from that glorious intercourse, at last, 
As from a mine of magic store, I drew 

Words which were weapons ; — L. & G. II. 20. 

653 And baffled hope like ice still clung to me — L. d' G. II. 21. 

654 Truth its radiant stamp 
Has fixed, as an invulnerable charm 

Upon her children's brow, dark Falsehood to disarm 

—L. d: C. II. 44. 

655 and his soul-subduing tongue 
Were as a lance to quell the maili^d crest of wrong. 

—L. d- C. IV. 17. 

656 the murderer 
Who slaked his thirsting soul as from a well 

Of blood and tears with ruin ! — L. d- C. V. 31. 

6 



82 

6i)7 A stormy night's serenest morrow, 

Whose showers are pity's gentle tears, 

Whose clouds are smiles of those that die 

Like infants without hopes or fears, 

And whose beams are joys which lie 

In blended hearts, —L. d- C. V. 50, 4. 

G58 while the stream 

Of life our bark doth on its whirlpools bear, 
Spreading swift wings as sails to the dim air ; 

—L. ct' C. VI. 29. 

6)9 Where knowledge from its secret source enchants 
Young hearts with the fresh music of its springing, 
Ere yet its gathered flood feeds human wants 
As the great Nile feeds Egypt ; —L. ct- C. VI. 41. 

660 thus all things were 
Transformed into the agony which I wore 

Even as a poisoned robe around my bosom's core 

—L. cfc C. VII. 15. 

661 Yes, in the wilderness of years 
Her memory, aye, like a green home appears, 

—L. ct- C. VII. 19. 

662 My miud became the book through which I grew 
Wise in all human wisdom, and its cave. 
Which like a mine 1 rifled through and through, 

To me the keeping of its secrets gave — — L. ct- C. VII. 31. 

663 Thy songs were winds whereon I fled at will, 
As in a winged chariot, o'er the plain 

Of crystal youth ; —L. & C. VII. 33. 

664 And his red hell's undying snakes among 
Will bind the wretch on whom he fixed a stain. 
Which, like a plague, a burthen, and a bane, 

Clung to him while he lived ; — L. db C. VIII. 8. 

665 Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn 
Channels vipon her cheek. —L. d; C. VIII. 15. 

666 The flood of tyranny, whose sanguine waves 

Stagnate like 'ice at Faith, —L. d; O. IX. 23. 

667, 668 And grey Priests triumph, and like blight or blast 
A shade of selfish care o'er" human looks is cast. 

—L. d C. IX. 24. 

669 Behold ! Spring comes, tho' we must pass, who made 
The promise of its birth, even as the shade 

Which from our death, as from a mountain, flings 

The future, a broad sunrise ; — L. cb C. IX. 25. 

670 thus arrayed 

As with the plumes of overshadowing wings, 

671 From its dark gulph of chauis. Earth like an eagle springs 

—L. <b C. IX. 25. 



88 

-672 Want and Pest 

Were horrible, but one more fell doth rear, 

As in a hydra's swarming lair, its crest 

Eminent among these victims — even the Fear 

Of Hell : —L. cL- C. XI. 7. 

673 What were his thoughts linked in the morning sun, 
Among those reptiles, stingless with delaj^ 

Even like a tyrant's wrath ? • — L. ((■ C. XII. 7. 

674 Which that we have abandoned now, 
Weighs on the heart like that remorse 

Which altered friendship leaves. — R. d: H. 27- 

675 Walking beneath the night of life, 
Whose hours extinguished, like slow rain 
Falling forever, pain by pain, 

The very hope of death's dear rest ; — R. cb H. 332. 

676 Pale with the quenchless thirst of gold, 

Which, like fierce fever, left him weak : — R. & H. 424. 

677 and hope and peace 
On all who heard him did abide. 

Raining like dew from his sweet talk, — R. <t H. 641. 

•678 yet all men loved 

Young Lionel, .... 

All but the priests, whose hatred fell 
Like the unseen blight of a smiling day. 
The withering honey-dew, which clings 
Under the bright green buds of May, 
Whilst they unfold their emerald wings ; — R. A- H. 673. 

679 Whose hope was like the life of youth 
Within him, and when dead, became 

A spirit of unresting flame, — R. <£■ H. 732. 

680 And winged hope, on wliich upborne, 
His soul seemed hovering in his eyes, 
Like some bright spirit newly born 
Floating amid the sunny skies. 

Sprang forth from his rent heart anew. — R. cfc H. 798. 

681 And their swords and their sceptres I floating see, 

Like wrecks in the surge of eternity. — R. d- H. 900. 

682 The truth flashed o'er me like quick madness — R. <£■ H. 998. 

683 Such flowers, as in the wintry memory bloom 

Of one friend left, adorned that frozen tomb. — R. d- H. 1310. 

684 while like flowers 
In the waste of years and hours, 
From your dust new nations spring 

With more kindly blossoming. —Eurj. Hills, 163. 

685 oh, rather say 
Though thy sins and slaveries foul 

Overcloud a sun-like soul — Eug. Hills, 191. 



h4 

686 But a friend's bosom 
Is as the inmost cave of our own mind 
Where we sit shut from the wide gaze of day, 

And from the all-communicating air. — Ceiici, II. ii. 88. 

687 If I must live day after day, and keep 

These limbs, the unworthy temple of thy spirit. 

As a foul den from which what thou abhorrest 

May mock thee, unavenged — — Cenci, III, i. 128. 

688 Self-murder ! no, that might be no escape, 
For thy decree yawns like a Hell between 

Oiir will and it :— —Cend, III. i. 132. 

689 And, honoured lady, while I speak, I pray 
That you put off, as garments overworn, 

Forbearance and respect, remorse and fear, — Cinci, III. i. 207. 

690 And in its depth there is a mighty rock, 
Which has from unimaginable years, 
Sustained itself with terror and with toil 
Over a gulph, and with the agony 

With which it clings seems slowly coming down ; 
Even as a wretched soul hour after hour. 
Clings to the mass of life ; yet clinging, leans ; 
And leaning makes more dark the di'ead abyss 
In which it fears to fall ; beneath this crag 

691 Huge as despair, as if in weariness, 

The melancholy mountain yawns. — —Cenci, III. i. 246. 

692 That word parricide. 
Although I am resolved, haunts me like fear. 

—Cenci, III. i. ^40. 

69.S No, 'tis her stubborn will 

Which by its own consent shall stoop as low 

As that which drags it down. —Cenci, IV. i. 10. 

694 and make his youth 
The sepulchre of hope, where evil thoughts 

Shall grow like weeds on a neglected tomb — Cenci, IV. i. 52. 

695 this devil 

Which sprung from me as from a hell — Cenci, IV. i. 119. 

696 aye, of the inmost soul. 

Which weeps within tears as of burning gall — Cenci, V. iii. 66. 

697 Plead with awakening earthquake, o'er whose coucli 
Even now a city stands, strong, fair, and free ; 
Now stench and blackness yawn, like death. 

—Cenci, V. iv. 103. 

698 How will thy soul, cloven to its depths with terror. 

Gape like a hell within ! — Prom. I. 55. 

699 Till thine Infinity shall be 

A robe of envenomed agony ; 
And thine Omnipotence a crown of pain, 
To cling like burning gold round thy dissolving brain. 

—Prom. I. 288. 



b5 

700 The hope of torturing him smells like a heap 

Of corpses, to a death-bird after battle — Prom. I. 339. 

701 bend thy soul in prayer, 
And like a suppliant in some, gorgeous fane, 

Let the will kneel within thy haughty heart : — Prom. I. 376. 

702 For what submission but that fatal word, 
The death-seal of mankind's captivity. 
Like the Sicilian's hair-suspended sword, 
Which trembles o'er his crown, whould he accept, 

Or could I yield? —Prom. I. 396. 

703 That we will be dread thought beneath thy brain, 
And blood within thy labyrinthine veins 

• Crawling like agony. — Prom. I. 488. 

704 Leave the hatred as in ashes 

Fire is left for future burning : 
It will burst in bloodier flashes 

When ye stir it soon returning — Prom. I. 506. 



and the present is spread 
705 Like a pillow of thorns for thy slumberless head. 



-Prom. I. 562. 



706 I bid ascend those subtle and fair spirits, 

Whose homes are the dim caves of human thought, 

And who inhabit, as birds wing the wind, 

Its world-surrounding ether : — Prom. I. 658. 

707, 708 From all the blasts of heaven thou hast descended : 
Yes, like a spirit, like a thought, which makes 
Unwonted tears throng to the horny eyes, 
And beatings haunt the desolated heart, 
Which should have learnt repose : thou hast descended 
Cradled in tempests ; thou dost wake, O Spring ! 
child of many winds ! As suddenly' 
Thou comest as the memory of a dream, 
Which now is sad because it hath been sweet ; 

709, 710 Like genius, or like joy which riseth up 

As from the earth, clothing with golden clouds 

The desert of our life. — Prom. II. i. 1. 

711 How like death-worms the wingless moments crawl ! 

— Prom. II. i. 16. 

712 Hark ! the rushing snow ! 
The sun-awakened avalanche ! whose mass 
Thrice sifted by the storm, had gathered there 
Flake after flake, in heaven-defying minds 

As thought by thought is piled, till some great truth 
Is loosened, and the nations echo roimd, 
Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now 

—Prom. II. iii. .36. 

713 The snake-like Doom coiled underneath his throne 

— Prom. II. iii. 97. 

714 And self-contempt, bitterer to drink than blood ; 

— Prom. II. iv. 25. 



86 

715 My soul is an enchanted boat, 
Which, like a sleeping swan, doth Hoat 

Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing ; 

—Prom. U. V. 72. 

716 The soul of man, like unextinguished fire 

Yet burns towards heaven with fierce reproach, 

— From. III. i. 5.. 

717 And tho' my curses thro' the pendulous ?iir. 
Like snow on herbless peaks, fall flake by flake, 
And cling to it ; tho' under my wrath's might 
It climb the ci'ags of life, step after step, 

718 Which wound it as ice wounds unsandalled feet, 

—Prom. III. i. 11. 

719 there the emulous youths 
Bore to thy honoiir thro' the divine gloom 

The lamp which was thine emblem ; even as those 

Who bear the untransmitted torch of hope 

Into the grave, across the night of life. 

As thou hast borne it most triumphantly 

To this far goal of time. — Prom. III. iii. KiS. 

720 Till her heart thaw like flakes of April snow — Prom. III. iv. S9. 

721 The painted veil, by those who were, called life, 
Which mimicked, as with colours idlj' spread. 

All men believed and hoped, is torn aside ; — Prom. III. iv. 190. 

722 Once the hungry Hours were hounds 

Which chased the day like a bleeding deer. 
And it limped and stumbled with many wounds 

Through the nightly dells of the desert year. — Prom. IV. 73. 

723 Wherever we fly we lead along 

In leashes like star-beams, soft yet strong. 

The clouds that are heavy with love's sweet rain. 

— Prom. IV. 177. 

724 Yet its two eyes are heavens 
Of liquid darkness, which the Deity 
Within seems pouring, as a storm is poured 
From jagged clouds, out of their arrowy lashes, 
Tempering the cold and radiant air around 

With fire that is not brightness ; — Prom. IV. 225. 

725 till the blue globe 

Wrapt deluge round it like a cloak. — Prom. IV. 315. 

726 Boi'ne beside thee by a power 
Like the polar Paradise 

727 Magnet-like of lover's eyes ; — Prom. IV. 464. 

728 Love, 

, . . . from the slippery steep 

And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs 

And folds over the world its healing wings. — Prom. IV. 557. 

729 And the wand-like lily, which lifted up, 

As a Maenad its moonlight-colored cup, — Senx. P. I. 33. 



87 

730 Thou art but the mind's first chamber 
Round which its young fancies clamber, 

Like weak insects in a cave, 
Lighted up by stalactites ; — Ode to Heav. 28. 

731 Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion, 
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, 
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, 

Angels of rain and lightning : there are spread 
On the blue surface of thine airy surge, 

732 Like the bright hair uplifted from the head 

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge 

Of the horizon to the zenith's height 

The locks of the approaching storm. — Ode to West W. II. 

733 My soul spurned the chains of its dismay. 
And, in the rajiid plumes of song. 
Clothed itself, sublime and strong ; 

As a young eagle soars the morning clouds among, 

Hovering in verse o'er its accustomed prey ; — Ode to Lib. I. 

734 That multitudinous anarchy did sweep. 

And burst around their walls, like idle foam, 

—Ode to Lib. IX. 

735 The eager hours and unreluctant years 

As on a dawn-illumined mountain stood. 
Trampling to silence their loud hopes and fears 

—Ode to Lib. XI. 

736 as if day had cloven the skies 
At dreaming midnight o'er the western wave, 

Men started, staggering with a glad surprise. 
Under the lightnings of thine unfamiliar eyes. 

—Ode to Lib. XI. 

737 How like Bacchanals of blood 

Round France, the ghastly vintage, stood 
Destruction's sceptred slaves, and Folly's mitred brood 

—Ode to Lib. XII. 

O, that the free would stamp the impious name 

Of King into the dust ! or write it there, 
So that this blot upon the page of fame 

738 Were as a serpent's path, which the light air 
Erases, and the flat sands close behind ! 

Ye the oracle have heard : 
Lift the victory-flashing sword, 
And cut the snaky knots of this foul gordian Avord, 

739 Which, weak itself as stubble, yet can bind 

—Ode to Lib. XV. 

740 Sweet Lamp ! my moth-like muse has burnt its wings ; 

—Epips. 53. 

741 A well of sealed and secret happiness, 
Whose waters like blithe light and nuisic are, 
Vanquishing dissonance and gloom ! — Epips. 56. 



88 

742 A Vision like incarnate April, warning, 
With smiles and tears Frost the Anatomy 

Into his summer grave. — Epip-'. 121. 

743 And in that best philosophy, whose taste 
Makes this cold common hell, our life, a doom 

As glorious as a fiery martyrdom ; — Epips. 213. 

744 And from her living cheeks and bosom flew 
A killing air, which pierced like honey-dew 
Into the core of my green heart, and lay 

Upon its leaves : — E/nps. 261. 

745 What storms then shook the ocean of my sleep, 
Blotting that moon, whose pale and waning lips 
Then shrank as in the sickness of eclipse ; — 

746 And how my soul was as a lampless sea. 

And who was then its Tempest ; — Epip>:. 308. 

747 Lady mine. 

Scorn not these flowers of thought, the fading birth 

Which from its heart of hearts that plant puts forth 

Whose fruit, made perfect by thy sunny eyes, 

Will be as of the trees of Paradise. — Epips. 383. 

748 Till the isle's beauty, like a naked bride, 
Glowing at once with love and loveliness, 
Blushes and trembles at its own excess : 

749 Yet, like a buried lamp, a .Soul no less 

Burns in the heart of this delicious isle, — Epips. 474. 

750 Where some old cavern hoar seems yet to keep 
The moonlight of the expired night asleep, 

A veil for our seclusion, close as Night's — Epipfi. 553 

754 ' and when years heap 

Their withered hours, like leaves, on our decay, — Epips. 536 

752 Or linger, where the pebble-paven shore. 
Under the quick faint kisses of the sea, 

Trembles and sparkles as with ecstasy, — — Epips. 546. 

753 It is a sweet thing, friendship, 



A flower which, fresh as Lapland roses are. 

Lifts its bold head into the world's frore air. 

And blooms most radiantly when others die. — Cane. Epips. 62. 

754 And barbed tongues . 

Rent the soft Form they never could repel. 
Whose sacred blood, like the young tears of May 
Paved with eternal flowers that undeserving way. 

—Adon. XXIV. 

755 The monsters of life's waste had fled from thee like deer. 

—Adon. XXVII. 

756 And cold hopes swarm like worms witliin our living clay. 

[don. XXXIX. 



89 

757 and thou Air 
Which like a mourning veil thy scarf hadst thrown 

O'er the abandoned Earth, — Adon. XLI. 

758 The splendours of the firmament of time 
May be eclipsed, but are extinguished not ; 
Like stars to their appointed height they climb, 
And death is a low mist which cannot blot 

The brightness it may veil. — Adou^ 

759 A Promethean conqueror came : 
Like a triumphal path he trod 

The thorns of death and shame — Hell. 212 

760 It has been sown 
And 3'et the harvest to the sickleman 

Is as a grain to each. — Hell. 249. 

761 Look, Hassan, on yon crescent moon, emblazoned 
Upon that shattered flag of fiery cloud 

Which leads the rear of the departing day ; 
Wan emblem of an empire fading now ! 
See how it trembles in the blood-red air, 
And, like a mighty lamp whose oil is spent, 
Shrinks on the horizon's edge, while, from above, 
One star with insolent and victorious light 
Hovers above its fall, and with keen beams; 

762 Like arrows through a fainting antelope, 

Strikes its weak form to death, — Hell. 337. 

763 The spirit that lifts the slave before his lord 
Stalks through the capitals of armed kings. 

Exults in chains ; and when the rebel falls, 

Cries like the blood of Abel from the dust ; — Hell. 35L 

764 The coming age is shadowed on the past 

As on a glass — Hell. 805. 

765 The heavy fi-agments of the power which fell 
When I arose, like shapeless crags and clouds 

Hang round my throne on the abyss, — Hell. 865. 

766 The autumn of a greener faith has come. 

And wolfish change, like winter, howls to strip 

The foliage in which Fame, the eagle, built 

Her aerie, while Dominion whelped below. 

The storm is in its branches, and tlie frost 

Is on its leaves, and the blank deep expects 

Oblivion on oblivion, spoil on spoil, 

Ruin on ruin. — Hell. 871. 

767 Oh, bear me to those isles of jagged cloud 

Which float like mountains on the earthquake, mid 

The momentary oceans of the lightning, — Hell. 957. 

768 And weave into his shame, which like the dead 

Shrouds me, the hopes that from his glory fled — Napoleon, 39. 



90 

769 And like that black and dreary bell, the soul, 
Hung in a heaven-illumined tower, must toll 
Our thoughts and our desires to meet below 
Round the rent heart and pray — as madmen do 

—Jul. d- Madd. 123, 

770 and those who try may find 
How strong the chains are which our spirits bind ; 

Brittle perchance as straw . . . — Jul. <t- Madd. 180. 

771 Month after month, he cried, to bear this load 
And as a jade urged by the whip and goad 

To drag life on, which like a heavy chain 
Lengthens behind with many a link of pain. 

—Jul. d; Madd. 300. 

772 And as slow years pass, a funereal train 

Each with the ghost of some lost hope or friend 

Following it like its shadow, — — Jul. d: Madd. 489. 

773 but let the silent years 
Be closed and sered over their memory 

As yon mute marble where their corpses lie. 

—Jul. d- Madd. 613. 

774 Nor any could the restless griefs unravel 

Which burned within him, withering up his prime. 
And goading him like fiends, from land to land. 

—Prince Ath. I. 3. 

775 And others said that such mysterious grief 
From God's displeasure, like a darkness, fell 

On souls like his, —Prince Ath. I. 93. 

776 'Tis the shadow of a dream 
Which the veiled eye of memory never saw, 

But through the soul's abyss like some dark stream 
Through shattered mines and caverns underground 
Rolls, shaking its foundations — Prince Ath. I. 98. 

777 For like an eyeless nightmare grief did sit 

Upon his being, a snake which fold by fold 
Pressed out the life of life, a clinging fiend 

Which clenched him if he stirred with deadlier hold — 

—Prince Ath. I. 120. 

778 who with the news of death 
Struck body and soul as with a mortal blight, 

—Prince Ath. II. 28. 

779 The breath of night like death did flow 

Beneath the sinking moon. — Lines I. 

780 And that slaughter to the nation 

Shall steam up like inspiration — Mask. LXXXIX. 

781 Low-tide in soul, like a stagnant laguna — Peter B. IV. xiv. 

782 And wit, like ocean, rose and fell ? — Peter B. IV. xxii. 

783 He spoke of poetry 

A spirit which like wind doth blow 

As it listeth to and fro, — Peter B. V. iv. 



91 

7.84 As troubled skies stain waters clear, 

The storm in Peter's heart and mind 
Now made his verses dark and (^ueer : —Ptter B. VI. xxxi. 

785 The spider spreads her webs, whether she be 
In poet's tower, cellar, or barn, or tree ; 

The silk-worm in the dark green mulberry leaves 

His winding-sheet and cradle ever weaves ; 

So I, a tiling whom moralists call worm, 

Sit spinning still round this decaying form. 

From the fine threads of rare and subtle thought 

No net of words in garish colour.s wrou^iic 

To catch the idle buzzers of the day — 

But a soft cell, where when that fades away, 

Memory may clothe in wings my living name 

And feed it with the asphodels of fame, — Letter to M. G. 1. 

786 If living winds the rapid clouds pursue, 

787 If hawks chase doves through the tetherial way, 
788, 789 Huntsmen the innocent deer, and beasts their prey, 

Why should not we rouse with the spirit's blast 

Out of the forest of the pathless past 

These recollected pleasures ? — Letter to M. G. 187. 

790 And there is he with his eternal puns. 

Which beat the dullest brains for similes, like duns 
Thundering for money at a poet's door ; — Letter to M. G. 219. 

790a Their spirits shook within them, as a flame 

Stirred by the air under a cavern gaunt : — Witch, XI. 

791 A haven beneath whose translucent floor 

The tremulous stars sparkled unfathomably. 
And around which the solid vapours hoar, 

Based on the level waters, to the sky 
Lifted their dreadful crags, and like a shore 

Of wintry mountains inaccessibly, 
Hemmed in with rifts and precipices grey, 

And hanging crags, many a cove and bay. — Witch, XLIX. 

792 And whilst the outer lake beneath the lash, 

Of the wind's scourge, foamed like a wounded thing 

— Witch, L. 

793 There the meteor lay, 
Panting forth light among the leaves and flowers. 
As if it lived, and was outworn with speed ; 

794 Or that it loved, and passion made tlie pulse 

795 Of its bright life throb like an anvious heart, 

— Fragm. of Dram. 130. 

796 .... vigilant Fear, 
And open-eyed Conspiracy lie sleeping 

As on Hell's threshold ; —Cha-s. I. I. 27. 

797 Subdue thy actions 
Even to the disposition of thy purpose, 

And be that tempered as the Ebro's steel ; 

—Cha^. L II. 126. 



92 

798 for on him 
As on a keystone hangs the arch of life, 

Whose safety is its strength. — Chas. I. II. 155. 

799 And whether life had been before that sleep 
The heaven which I imagine, or a hell 

Like this harsh world in which I wake to weep, 

I know not. — Triumph, 332. 

800 And all the gazer's mind was strewn beneath 

Her feet like embers ; and she, thought by thought, 

Trampled its sparks into the dust of death ; 

As day —Triumph, ZS6. 

801 From every firmest limb and fairest face 

The strength and freshness fell like dust, — Triumph, 520. 

802 Now is thy voice a tempest swift and strong, 
On which like one in trance upborne. 

Secure o'er rocks and waves I sweep, 
Rejoicing like a cloud of morn. — Const. IV. 

803 My spirit like a charmed bark doth swim 

Upon the liquid waves of thy sweet singing. 
Far away into the regions dim 

804 Of rapture — as a boat with swift sails winging 
Its way adown some many-winding river. 

—Fragm. Vol. III., p. 394. 

805 and every form 

Was awed into delight, and by the charm 

Girt as with an interminable zone. — Woodman, 32. 

806 O mighty mind, in whose deep stream the age 
Shakes like a reed in the unheeding storm, 

— Fragm. to Byron. 

807 The nightingale's complaint. 
It dies upon her heart : 

As I must die on thine. 

Beloved as thou art. — Ind. Ser. II. 

808 I have unlocked the golden melodies 
Of his deep soul, as with a master-key, 

And loosened them and bathed myself therein — 

809 Even as an eagle in a thunder mist 

Clothing his wings with lightning. — Fragm. Vol. IV., p. 14. 

810 When the chill wind, languid as with pain 

Of its own heavy moisture, — Fragm. Fitfid, 2 

811 And the pure stars in their eternal bowers 

Are cinctured with my power as with a robe, — Apollo, IV. 

812 I went into the deserts of dim sleep — 

That world which, like an unknown wilderness. 
Bounds this with its recesses wide and deep. 

—Fragm. Vol. IV. p. 64. 



93 

813 As an earthquake rocks a corse 

In its coffin in tlis clay, 
So White Winter, that rough nurse, 

Rocks the death-cold year to-day. 
Solemn hours ! wail aloud 
For your mother in her shroud. 

814 As the wild air stirs and swaj'S 

The tree-swung cradle of a child. 
So the breath of these rude days 

Rocks the year : — Dinje/or the Year, II. & III. 

815 The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove 

With the wings of care — From A rahic, II. 

816 The sleepless billows on the ocean's breast 
Break like a bursting heart, and die in foam 

— To WUliams, VI. 

817 from Tyranny which arms 
Adverse miscreeds and emulous anarchies 
To stamp, as on a winged serpent's seed, 
Upon the name of Freedom ; from the storm 

818 Of faction, which like earthquake shakes and sickens 

The solid heart of enterprise : — Prol. to Hell. 105. 

819 The lamps which, half extinguished in theii' liaste, 
Gleamed few and faint o'er the abandoned feast, 
Shewed as it were within the vaulted room 

820 A cloud of sorrow hanging, as if gloom 

Had passed out of men's minds into the air. — Ginev. 169. 

821 We'll put a soul into her [sc. boat], and a heart 

Which, like a dove chased by a dove, shall beat — Serchio, 71. 

822 Great spirit, whom the sea of boundless thought 

Nurtures within its unimagined caves. 
In whicla thou sittest sole, as in my mind 
Giving a voice to its mysterious waves. 

—Fragm. Vol. IV. p. 122. 

823 . when I . . . 

Wept o'er the beauty, which like sea retiring, 

824 Had left the earth bare as the wave -worn sand 

Of my lorn heart, — Zucca I. 

825 Like a cloud big with a May shower, 

My soul weeps healing rain. 
On thee, thou withered flower ; — Mag. Lady, IV. 

826 The chains of earth's immurement 

Fell from lanthe's spirit ; 
They shrank and brake like bandages of straw. 

— Q. M. I. 188. 

827 Monarchs and conquerors there 
Proud o'er prostrate millions trod — • 
The earthquakes of the human race ; 
Like them, forgotten when the ruin 

That marks their shook is past. — Q. M. II. 121. 



94 

828 His slumbers are but varied agonies, 

They prey like scorpions on the springs of life. 

^ —Q. M. III. 77. 

829 their influence darts 

Like subtle poison through the bloodless veins 

Of desolate society. —Q- M. IV. 106. 

830 Until piire health-drops, from the cup of joy, 

Fall like a dew of balm upon the world. —Q. M. VI. 52. 

831 And life. . . . 

Like hungry and unresting flame 
Curls round the eternal columns of its strength 

—Q. M. VI. 235. 



DOUBLE SIMILES. 

832 His wan eyes 
Gaze on the empty scene as vacantly 

As ocean's moon looks on the moon in heaven — Alast. 201. 

833 and, as gamesome infants' eyes, 
With gentle meanings, and most innocent wiles, 
Fold their beams round the hearts of those that love. 
These twine their tendrils with the M'edded boughs 

Uniting their close union : — Alast. 438. 

834 And I return to thee, mine own heart's home ; 
As to his Queen some victor Knight of Faery, 
Earning bright spoils for her enchanted dome ; 

—Dedn.,L.d-C.I. 

835 Thou Friend, whose presence on my wintry heart 
Fell like bright Spring upon some herbless plain ; 

—Dedn. L. d.- C. VII. 

836 These things dwelt in me even as shadows keep 
Their watch in some dim charnel's loneliness, 

—L. ct- C. III. 22. 

837 my scorched limbs he wound 
In linen moist and balmy, and as cold 

As dew to drooping leaves ; — — L. <i: G. III. 29. 

838 But Laon's name to the tumultuous throng 
Were like the star whose beams the waves compel 

And tempests, ' — L. d; C. IV. 17. 

839 The tyrants send their armed slaves to quell 
Her power ; — they, even like a thunder gust 
Caught by some forest, bend beneath the spell 

Of that young maiden's speech, — L. d; C. IV. 20. 

840 ' ' and let the past 
Be as a grave that gives not up its dead 

To evil thoughts." —L. <b C. V. 12. 



95 

S41 but his straight lips were bent, 

Men said, into a smile which guile portended, 
A sight with which that child like hope with fear was blended. 

—L. ci- C. V. 36. 

842 I could see 



The multitudes, the mountains and the sea ; 

As when eclipse hath passed, things sudden shine 

To men's astonished eyes most clear and crystalline. 

—L. ct- C. V. 46. 

843 to each other 
As when some parent fondly reconciles 

Her warring children, she their wrath beguiles 

With her own sustenance ; — L. d; G. V. 55. 

844 and over all 
A mist was spread, the sickness of a deep 
And speechless swoon of joy, as might befall 
Two disunited spirits when they leap 

In union from this earth's obscure and fading sleep 

—L. it C. VI. 34. 

845 Justice, or truth, or joy ! those only can 
From slavery and religion's labyrinth caves 
Guide us, as one clear star the seaman saves, 

—L. ct- C. VIII. 11. 

Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn 
Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn, 

846 As calm decks the false ocean :^ — L. cfc C. VIII. 15. 

847 Yes — I must speak — my secret should have perished 
Even with the heart it wasted, as a brand 

Fades in the dying flame whose life it cherished, 

— L. ct- C. VIII. 24. 

848 a wide enthusiasm, 

To cleanse the fevered world as with an earthquake's spasm ! 

—L. cfc U. IX. 5. 

849 Tliose who were sent to bind me, wept and felt 

Their minds outsoar the bounds which clasped them round, 

Even as a waxen shape may waste and melt 

In the white furnace ; — L. ct- C. IX. 11. 

850 And Calumny meanwhile shall feed on us. 

As worms devour the dead, — L. ct- C. IX. 31. 

851 those hosts of many a nation 
Stood round that pile, as near one lover's tomb 

Two gentle sistei's mourn their desolation ; — L. ct- C. X. 43. 

852 for many of those warriors young, 
Had on his eloquent accents fed and hung 

Like bees on mountain flowers — L. ct- C. XI. 19. 

853 Lo, that is mine own child, who in the guise 
Of madness came, like day to one benighted 

In lonesome woods-: — L. ct- C. XII. 22. 



96 

854 Secure as one on a rock-built tower 

O'er the wrecks which the surge trails to and fro, 

'Mid the passions wild of human kind 

He stood, like a spirit calming them ; — R. ct H. 632. 

855 All that others seek 
He casts away, like a vile weed 

Which the sea casts unreturningly. — i?. <(^ H. 666. 

856 Till, like an image in the lake 

Which rains disturb, my tears would break 

The shadow of that slumber deep : — R. <(• H. 837- 

857 but soon his gestures kindled 
New power, as by the moving wind 

The waves are lifted, —R. d.- H. 1160. 

858 Perish — let there only be 
Floating o'er thy hearthless sea 
As the garment of thy sky 
Clothes the world immortally, 
One remembrance, more sublime 
Than the tattered pall of Time 

Which scarce hides thy visage wan ; — — Eug. Hilh, 167. 

That incestuous pair [.sc. Sin and Death] who follow 

859 Tyrants as the sun the swallow, 

860 As Repentance follows Crime, 

861 And as changes follow Time —Eug. Hills, 252. 

862 Thou, that to human thought art nourishment. 

Like darkness to a dying flame — H. I. B. 4. 

863 I stood beside your dark and fiery youth 
Watching its bold and bad career, as men 

Watch meteors, but it vanished not — — Cenci, I. i. 49. 

864 Because I am a priest do you believe 

Your image, as the hunter some struck deer. 

Follows me not whether I wake or sleep ? — Cenci, I. ii. 11. 

865 I were a fool, not less than if a panther 
Were panic-stricken l>y the antelope's eye, 

If she escapes me. — Cenci, I. ii. 89. 

866 I see as from a tower, the end of all — Cenci, II. ii. 147. 

867 Consequence, to me, 

Is as the wind which strikes the solid rock 

But shakes it not. — Cenci, IV. iv. 50. 

868 She, who alone in this unnatural work. 
Stands like God's angel ministered upon 

By fiends ; — Cenci, V. i. 42. 

869 A word ? which those of this false world 
Employ against each other, not themselves ; 

As men wear daggers not for self-offence. — Cenci, V. i. 99. 



97 

870 He shrinks from her regai'd like autumn's leaf 
From the keen breath of the serenest north. 

— Cenci, V. ii. 114. 

871 Alas ! poor boy ! 
A wreck-devoted seaman thus might pray 

To the deaf sea. — Cenci, V. iv. 42. 

872 she within whose stony veins 

Joy ran, as blood within a living frame. — Prom. I. 153. 

873 so the revenge 

Of the Supreme ma}' sweep thro' vacant shades, 

As rainy wind through the abandoned gate 

Of a fallen palace. — Prom. I. 215. 

874 A spirit seizes me and speaks within : 

It tears me as tire tears a thunder-clovid. — Prom. I. 264. 

875 r see the curse on gestures cold and proud 

Written as on a scroll. — Prom. I. 258. 

876 Pity the self-despising slaves of Heaven, 
Not me, within whose mind sits peace serene. 

As light in the sun, throned : — Prom. I. 429. 

877 and as lean dogs pursue 
Thro' wood and lake some struck and sobbing fawn. 
We track all things that weep, and bleed, and live, 

—Prom. I. 454. 

878 and tho' we can obscure not 
The soul that burns within, that we will dwell 
Beside it, like a vain loud multitude 

Vexing the self-content of wisest men : — Prom. I. 484. 

879 See a disenchanted nation 

Springs like day from desolation ; — Prom. I. 567. 

880 I see 

The wise, the mild, the lofty, and the just. 

Some hunted by foul lies from their heart's home. 

As hooded ounces cling to the driven hind ; —Prom. I. 604. 

And we breathe, and sicken not. 
The atmosphere of human thought : 

881 As the birds within the wind, 

882 As the fish within the wave, 

883 As the thoughts of man's own mind 

Float through all above the grave ; 
We make these our liquid lair. 
Voyaging cloud -like and unpent 
Thro' the boundless element : — Prom. I. 675. 



98 

884 Spirits ! how know ye this shall be ? 
(Chorus.) In the atmosphere we breathe, 

As buds grow red when the snowstorms flee 

From Spring gathering up beneath, — Proin. I. 789. 

885 Asia ! who, when my being overflowed, 
Wert like a golden chalice to bright wine 

Which else had sunk into the thirsty dust. — Prom. I. 809. 

886 But on each leaf was stamped, as the blue bells 
Of Hyacinth tell Apollo's written grief, 

O Follow, Follow ! ~^Prom. II. i. 139. 

887 He taught to rule, as life directs the limbs, 

The tempest-winged chariots of the ocean, — Prom. II. iv. 92. 

888 We two will sink on the wide waves of ruin. 
Even as a vulture and a snake outspent 
Drop, twisted in inextricable fight, 

Into a shoreless sea. — Prom. III. i. 71. 

889 And I shall gaze not on the deeds which make 
My mind obscure with sorrow, as eclipse 

Darkens the sphere I guide ; — Prom. III. ii. 35. 

890 And death shall be the last embrace of her 
Who takes the life she gave, even as a mother, 
Folding her child, says, " Leave me not again." 

—Prom. III. ii. 105. 

891 Thrones, altars, judgment-seats, and prisons ; wherein 
And beside which by wretched men were borne 
Sceptres, tiaras, swords and chains, and tomes 

Of reasoned wrong, glozed on by ignorance. 

Were like those monstrous and barbaric shapes. 

The ghosts of a no more remembered fame. 

Which from their unworn obelisks, look forth 

In triumph o'er the palaces and tombs 

Of those who were their conquerors ; mouldering round 

Those imaged to the pride of kings and priests, 

A dark yet mighty faith, a power as wide 

As is the world it wasted, and are now 

But an astonishment ; even so the tools 

892 And emblems of its last captivity, 
Amid the dwellings of the peopled earth. 
Stand, not o'erthrown but unregarded now. 

— Prom,. III. iv. 164. 

893 The pale stars are gone ! 

and they flee 
Beyond his blue dwelling. 
As fawns flee the leopard. — Prom. IV. 1. 

894 We join the throng 
Of the dance and song 

By the whirlwind of gladness blown along ; 

As the flying-fish leap 

From the Indian deep 
And mix with the sea-birds, half asleep. —Pro7n. IV. 83. 



99 

S9o And where two runnels of a rivulet, 
Between the close moss violet-inwoven, 
Have made their path of melody, like sisters 
Who part with sighs that they may meet in smiles, 
Turning their dear disunion to an isle 
Of lovely grief, a wood of sweet sad thoughts ; 

—Prom. IV. 196. 

S9Q A sphere, which is as many thousand spheres, 
Solid as crystal, yet through all its mass 
Flow, as through empty space, music and light ; 

—Prom. IV. 238. 

^97 and over these 

The jagged alligator, and tlie might 
Of earth-convulsing behemoth, which once 
Were monarch beasts, and on the slimy shores. 
And weed-overgrown continents of earth. 
Increased and multiplied like summer worms 
On an abandoned corpse, — Prom. IV. 308. 

898 How art thou sunk, withdrawn, covered, drunk up 
By thirsty nothing, as the brackish cup 

Drained by a desert-troop, a little drop for all ; 

—Prom. IV. 350. 

899 Man one harmonious soul of many a soul, 
Whose nature is its own divine control. 

Where all things flow to all, as rivers to the sea ; 

—Prom. IV. 400. 

9(X) His will, . . . 

Is as a tempest- winged ship, whose helm 
Love rules, through waves which dare not overwhelm. 
Forcing life's wildest shores to own its sovereign sway. 

—Prom. IV. 406. 

901 As the dissolving warmth of dawn may fold 

A half unfrozen dew-drop, green, and gold, 



Thou art folded, thou art lying 
In the light which is undying 
Of thine own joy, and heaven's smile divine ; 

—Prom. IV. 431. 

902 I, a most enamoured maiden, 

around thee move, 
Gazing, an insatiate bride. 
On thy form from every side 
Like a Maenad, round the cup, 
Which Agave lifted up 
In the weird Cadmajan forest — Prom. IV. 467. 

Drinking from thy sense and sight 
Beauty, majesty and might, 
903, 904 As a lover or chameleon 

(Irows like what it looks upon, — Prom. IV. 481. 

LofC. 



100 

905 Thou, Moon, which gazest on the nightly Earth 

With wonder, as it gazes upon tliee ; — Prom. IV. 524. 

906 The flowers ... 

Wlien Heaven's blithe winds had unfolded them. 

As mine-lamps enkindle a hidden gem. 

Shone smiling to Heaven, — -Sens. P. I. H3. 

907 There was a power in this sweet place, 
An p]ve in this Eden ; a riding grace 

Which to the flowers did they waken or dream. 

Was as God is to the starry scheme. — Sens. P. II. 1. 

908 The water-blooms under the rivulet 

Fell from the stalks on which they were set ; 

And the eddies drove them here and there 

As the winds did those of the upper air. — Stns. P. III. 42. 

909 The sap shrank to the root through every pore 

As blood to a heart that will beat no more — Hans. P. III. 88. 

910 then the cold sleep 
Crept, like blight through the ears of a thick field of corn, 
O'er the populous vessel. —Vision of ><ea, 50^ 

911 it rent them in twain. 
As a flood rends its barriers of mountainous crag : 

— Vision oj Sea, 111. 

912 Like a sister and lirother 
The child and the ocean still smile on each other, 

— Vision of Sea, 167. 

913 O thou 
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed 
The winged seeds where they lie cold and low, 

Each like a corpse within its grave, — Ode to West \V. L 

914 Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is : — Ode to West [V. V, 

915 Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth 
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind ! 

—Ode to West W. V. 

916 The sanguine sunrise with his meteor eyes. 

And his burning plumes outspread. 
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack, 

When the morning star shines dead, 
As on the jag of a mountain ci-ag, 

Which an earthquake rocks and swings, 
An eagle alit one moment may sit 

In the light of its golden wings. — Cloud, 31. 

917 palace and pyramid. 
Temple and prison, to many a swarming million 
W^ere, as to mountain wolves their ragged caves. 



918 . . . but o'er the populous solitude 
Like one fierce cloud over a waste of waves 
Hung Tyranny ; — Ode to Lib. III. 



101 

919 And, like unfolded flowers beneath the sea, 

920 Like the man's thought dark in the infant's brain, 

921 Like aught that is which wraps what is to be. 

Art's deathless dream lav veiled by many a vein 
Of Parian stone ; ' —Ode to Lib. IV. 

922 one spirit vast 
With life and love makes chaos ever new, 

As Athens doth the world with thy delight renew. 

923 Then Rome was, and from thy deep bosom fairest. 

Like a wolf-cub from a Cadmsan Maenad, 
She drew the milk of greatness, — Ode to Lib. VI. , \ II. 

"924 O, that the words which make the thoughts obscure 

From which they spring, as clouds of glimmering dew 
From a white lake blot heaven's blue portraiture, 

—Ode to Lib. XVI. 

925 And power in thought be as the tree within the seed ? 

—Ode to Lib. XVII. 

926 Come, Thou, but lead out of the inmost cave 

Of man's deep spirit, as the morning star 
Beckons the Sun from the Eoan wave. 

Wisdom. —Ode lo Lib. XVI II. 

927 For prophecies when once they get abroad, 
Like liars who tell the truth to serve their ends, 

928 Or hypocrites who, from assuming virtue, 
Do the same actions that the virtuous do, 

Contrive their own fulfilment. — <Ed. Tyr. I. 131. 

929 She met me Stranger, upon Life's rough way. 

And lured me towards sweet Death ; as Night by Day, 
930,931 Winter by Spring, or Sorrow by swift Hope, 

Led into light, life, peace. — Epip-i:. 72. 

932 A killing air, which pierced like honey-dew 
Into the core of my green heart, and lay 
Upon its leaves ; until, as hair grown grey 
O'er a young brow, they hid its unblown prime 

With ruins of unseasonable time. — Epips. 262. 

933 She hid me, as the Moon may hide the night 
From its own darkness, until all was bright 
Between the Heaven and Earth of my calm mind, 

934 And, as a cloud charioted bj' the wind, 
She led me to a cave in that wild place, 
And sat beside me with her downward face 

935 Illumining my slumber, like the Moon 

Waxing and waning o'er Endymion. — Epips. 287. 

936 and the dreaming clay 
Was lifted by the thing that dreamed below 

As smoke by fire, — Epips. 338. 

937 And, as those married lights, which from the towers 
Of Heaven look forth and fold the wandering globe 
In liquid sleep and splendour, as a robe ; 

And all their manv-niincjled influence bend 



102 

If equal, yet unlike, to one sweet end ; 

So ye, bright regents, with alternate sway 

Govern my sphere of being night and day ! — Epips. 355- 

938 adoring Even and Morn 
Will worship thee with incense of calm breath 
And lights and shadows ; as the star of Death 
And Birth is worshipped by those sisters wild 

Called Hope and Fear — — Epips. 377. 

939 The golden Day, which, on eternal wings 
Even as a ghost abandoning a bier, 

Had left the Earth a corpse — Adon. XXlII. 

940 " Leave me not wild and drear and comfortless. 

As silent lightning leaves the starless night ! " — Adon. XXV. 

941 And grey walls moulder round, on which dull Time 

Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand ; — Adon. L. 

942 Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, 

Stains the white radiance of Eternity — Adon. LII. 

943 Whose soft smiles to his dark and night-like eyes 
Were as the clear and ever-living brooks 

Are to the obscure fountains whence they rise. 

Showing how pure they are : — Cane. Adon. 

944 The winged glory 
On Philippi half-alighted. 

Like an eagle on a promontory. — Hell. 56 ■ 

945 As an eagle fed with morning 

Scorns the embattled tempest's warning, 

When she seeks her aerie hanging 

In the mountain-cedar's hair, 

And her brood expect the clanging 

Of her wings through the wild air, 

Sick with famine — Freedom, so 

To what of Greece remaineth now 

Returns ; — Hell. 7(J. 

946 Thrice has a gloomy vision haunted me, 

It shakes me as the tempest shakes the sea, 

Leaving no figure upon memory's glass. — Hall. 128- 

947 His cold pale limbs and pulseless arteries 
Are like the fibres of a cloud instinct 

With light, and to the soul that quickens them 

Are as the atoms of the mountain -drift 

To the winter wind. — Hvl/. 142. 

948 For thy sake cursed be the hour 

Even as a father by an evil child. — Htll. 264. 

949 Biit recreant Austria loves thee as the grave 

Loves Pestilence, — Hell. 312. 

950 Even as that moon 
Renews itself — 

Mahmud. ."^hall we be not renewed. — H'ifl. 347. 



103 

951 The abhorred cross glimmereil . 

and that fatal sign 
Dried with its beams the strength in Moslem hearts, 
As the sun drinks the dew. — Hdl. 501. 

952 Go, 

Where Thermae and Asopus swallowed 

Persia, as the sand does foam, — Hell. 687. 

953 they know not, till the night of death, 
As sunset, that strange vision, severeth 

Our memory from itself, and us from all 

We sought and yet were baffled. — Julian, 127. 

954 " Month after month," he cried, " to bear this load 
And as a jade urged by the whip and goad 

To drag life on — Julian, 299. 

955 As the slow shadows of the pointed grass 
Mark the eternal periods, his pangs pass 

Slow, ever-moving, — Julian, 416. 

956 But me, whose heart a stranger's tear might wear 

As water-drops the sandy fountain stone, —JiilirDi, 442. 

957 The grave is yawning ... as its roof shall cover 
My limbs with dust and worms under and over. 

So let Oblivion hide this grief . . . — /nlian, 506. 

958 But I imagined, that if day by day 

I studied all the beatings of his heai-t 

With zeal, as men study some stubborn art 

For their own good, — Julian, 568. 

959 As when day begins to thicken 

None knows a pigeon from a crow 
So good and bad, sane and mad. 
The oppressor and the oppressed : 

All are damned. — Petei' Bdl, III. xxi. 

960 All things that Peter saw and felt 

Had a peculiar aspect to him ; 
And when they came within the belt 
Of his own nature, seemed to melt, 

Like cloud to cloud, into him. — Peter Bdl, IV. iii. 

961 And men of learning, science, wit, 

Considered him as you and I 
Think of some rotten tree, and sit 
Lounging and dining under it, 

Exposed to the wide sky. — Peter Bell, IV. xx. 

962 And he made songs for all the land, 
Sweet both to feel and understand. 

As pipkins late to mountain cotter. — Peter Bell, V. xii. 

96-3 Bohn's translation of Kant's book ; 

A world of words, tail foremost, where 
Right-wrong-falsetrue and fouland fair, 

As in a lottery wheel are shook. — Peter Bell, VI. xiii. 



104 

964 When we shall be as we no longer are 

Like babbling gossips safe, who hear the war 

Of winds, and sigh, but tremble not ; — — Letter to M. G. 164. 

9fi5 As water does a sponge, so the moonlight 

Fills the void, hollow, universal air — Letter to M. G. 255. 

966 Or as on Vesta's sceptre a swift flame — 

967 Or on blind Homer's heart a winged thought 

In joyous expectation lay the boat. — WitrJi, XXXIV. 

968 By Moeris and the Mareotid lakes. 

Strewn with faint blooms like bridal chamber floors, 

— Witch, LVIII. 

969 He was so awful, yet 
So beautiful in mystery and terror. 
Calming me as the lov^eliness of heaven 

Soothes the unquiet sea : — Fragm. of Drama, 103. 

970 As adders cast their skins 

And keep their venom, so Kings often change ; 

—Chas. I. I. 126. 

971 Tis but 

The anti-masque, and serves as discords do 

In sweetest music. — Chax. I. I. 173. 

972 [It seems] now as the baser elements 

Had mutinied against the golden sun 
That kindles them to harmony, and quells 

Their self-destroying rapine. The wild million 

973 Strikes at the eye that guides them ; like as humours 
Of the distempered body that conspir-e 

Against the spirit of life throned in the heart. 

— C/ta.s. /. II. 145. 

974 Partly 'tis 

That our minds piece the vacant intervals 
Of his wild words with their own fashioning. 
As in the imagery of summer clouds, 
97;") Or coals of the winter fire, idlers find 

The perfect shadows of their teeming thoughts : 

— CVtax. /. I[. 465. 

976 And of tliis stuff' the car's creative ray 
Wrought all the busy phantoms that were there. 

As the sun shapes the clouds ; — TriiuapJi, 533. 

977 There late was one within whose subtle being, 
As light and wind within some delicate cloud, 
That fades amid the bhie noon's burning sky. 

Genius and death contended. — Sunset, 1. 

978 Two flames that each with quivering tongue 
Licked its high domes, and overhead 
Among those mighty towers and fanes 
Dropped fire, as a volcano rains 

Its sulphurous ruin on the plains, — Marianne\'< D. XII. 



105 

979 The plank whereon that Lady sate 

Was driven through the chasms, about and about 

As the thistle-beard on a whirlwind sails — 
While the flood was filling those hollow vales. 

— Marianne''s D. XVI. 

980 By the false cant which on their innocent lips 
Must hang like poison on an opening bloom, 

— To Lord C. X. 

981 Beware, Man — for knowledge must to thee, 

Like the great flood to Egypt, ever be. — To the Nile. 

■982 Let us laugh, and make our mirth, 
At the shadows of the earth, 
As dogs bay the moonlight clouds — To Misery, XII. 

983 As sunset to the sphered moon, 

984 As twilight to the western star, 

Thou, beloved, art to me — To Mary, 12. 

985 As death to life, 

986 As winter to fair flowers, (though some be poison), 

So Monarchy succeeds to Freedom's foison — Marenghi, III. 

987 that band 

Of free and glorious brothers who had planted, 

Like a green isle 'mid ^^thiopian sand, 

A nation amid slaveries. — Marenghi, VI. 

988 foster-nurse [at. Florence] of man's abandoned glory 

Since Athens, its great mother, sunk in splendour ; 
Thou shadowest forth that might}' shape in story, 
As ocean its wrecked fanes, severe yet tender : — 

— Marenghi, VII. 

989 As the sunrise to the night, 

990 As the north wind to the clouds, 
■991 As the earthquake's fiery flight. 

Ruining mountain solitudes, 
Everlasting . . . Italy. 
Be those hopes and fears on thee — To Italy. 

992 Alpheus rushed behind, — 

As an eagle pursuing 
A dove to its ruin 
Down the streams of the cloudy wind. — Areth. 

993 Elysian City which to calm enchantest 

The mutinous air and sea : they, round thee, even 

As sleep round Love, are driven — Ode to Naples, 54. 

994 The Anarchs of the North lead forth their legions 

Like chaos o'er creation, uncreating. — Ode to Naples, 137. 

995 But, as Sj'rinx fled Pan, so night flies day, — Orph. 15. 

996 My faint spirit was sitting in the light 

Of thy looks, my love ; 
It panted for thee like the hind at noon 

For the brooks, my love. — From Arabic, I. 



10() 

997 As a lizard with the shade 

Of a trembling leaf, 
Thou with sorrow art dismayed : — Song, Vol. IV., p. 78, 

998 As the wood when leaves are shed, 

999 As the night when sleep is fled, 

1000 As the heart when joy is dead 

I am left lone, alons. — Rememhrance, I. 

1001 As the fruit is to the tree 

May their children ever be. — Epifh. 31. 

1002 Then Hope approached . . 



And Fear withdrew, as night when day 

Descends upon the orient ray, — Love, 37. 

1003 When, as summer lures the swallow, 

Pleasure lures the heart to follow — — Love, 47. 

1004 wlien Power and Pleasure, 
Glory, and science and security. 

On Freedom hung like fruit on the green tree, — Prol. Hell. 156. 

1005 Till, as a spirit half arisen 
Shatters its charnel, it has rent 
In the rapture of its mirth 

The thin and painted garment of the earth, 

—Fray. Vol. IV. p. 102. 

1006 Its leaves which had outlived the frost, the thaw 

Had blighted, like a heart wliich hatred's eye 
Can blast not, but which pity kills : — Zucca, VI. 

1007 As music and splendour 
Survive not the lamp and the lute, 

The heart's echoes render 
No song when the spirit is mute : — 

— Line-i, Vol. iv. , p. 132, ii. 

1008 Its passions will rock thee 

As the storms rock the ravens on high : 
Bright reason will mock thee 

1009 Like the sun from the wintry sky. — Line'<, IV. 

1010 Fairer far than this fair Day, 
Which, like thee to those in sorrow, 
Come.s to bid a sweet good-morrow 

To the rough year just awake 

In its cradle on the brake. — To Jane, 2. 

1011 Like one beloved the scene had lent 

To the dark water's breast, 
Its every leaf and lineament 

With more than truth exprest ; — To Jane, Recoil. 77. 

1012 The virtuous man. 
Who, great in his humility, as Kings 

Are little in their grandeur ; — Q. M. III. 150. 



107 

10 1 H Thine the tribunal which surpasseth 

The show of human justice, 

As God surpasses man. — Q. M. III. 223. 

1014 From his cabinet 

These puppets of his schemes he moves at will, 

Even as the slaves by force or famine driven, 

Beneath a vulgar master, to perform 

A task of cold and brutal ilrudgery ; — Q. M. V. 70. 



DOUBLE SIMILES. 



Homeric. 

1015 As an eagle grasped 
In folds of the green serpent, feels her breast 
Burn with the poison, and precipitates 

Through night and day, tempest, and calm, and cloud. 

Frantic with dizzying anguish, her blind flight 

O'er the wide aery wilderness : tlius driven 

By the bright shadow of that lovely dream. 

Beneath the cold glare of the desolate night. 

Through tangled swamps, and deep precipitous dells. 

Startling with careless step the moonlight snake. 

He fled. —Alast. 227. 

1016 For, as fast years flow away, 
The smooth brow gathers, and the hair grows thin 
And white, and where irradiate dewy eyes 

Had shone, gleam stony orbs : — so from his steps 
Bright flowers departed, and the beautiful shade 
Of the green groves, with all their odorous winds 
And musical motions. — Alast. 533. 

1017 Then, like the forests of some pathless mountain, 

Which from remotest glens two warring winds 
Involve in fire, which not the loosened fountain 

Of broadest floods might quench, shall all the kinds 

Of evil catch from our uniting minds 

The spark which must consume them : — — L. <i- C. II. 46. 

1018 as whirlpools draw 
All wrecks of Ocean to their chasm, the sway 

Of thy strong genius, Laon, which foresaw 

This hope, compels all spirits to obey, — L. d- C, IV. 15. 

1019 all mortal eyes were drawn, 
As famished mariners thro' strange seas gone 
Gaze on a burning watch-tower, by the light 

Of those divinest lineaments — — L. li.' C. V. 44. 



108 

1020 as dead leaves wake 
Under the wave, in flowers and herbs which make 
Those green depths beautiful when skies are blue, 
The multitude so moveless did partake 

Such living change, — L. d- C. V. 53. 

1021 as in the sacred grove 
Which shades the springs of ^-Ethiopian Nile, 
That living tree, which, if the arrowy dove 
Strike with her shadow, shrinks in fear awhile, 

But its own kindred leaves clasps while the sunbeams smile ; 

And clings to them, when darkness may dissever 

The close caresses of all duller plants 

Which bloom on the wide earth — thus we forever 

Were linked, for love had nursed us in the haunts 

Where Knowledge ft^om its secret source inchants 

Young heai'ts with the fresh music of its springing, 

Ere yet its gathered flood feeds human wants 

As the great Nile feeds Egypt ; —L. 1 C. VI. 40, 41. 

1022 as an autumnal blossom 
Which spreads its shrunk leaves in the sunny air. 
After cold showers, like rainbows woven there. 
Thus in her lips and cheeks the vital spirit 
Mantled, and in her eyes, an atmosphere 

Of health and hope ; —L. d: C. VI. 55. 

102.3 As in its sleep some odorous violet, 

While yet its leaves with nightly dews are wet, 

Breathes in prophetic dreams of day's uprise, 

Or, as ere Scythian frost in fear has met 

Spring's messengers descending from the skies. 

The buds foreknow their life — this hope must ever rise. 

— i. d: C. VII. 37. 

1024 My spirit moved upon the sea like wind 

Which round some thymy cape will lag and hover, 

Tho' it can wake the still cloud, and unbind 

The strength of Tempest : —L d- C. VII. 40. 

1025 Yes, it is Hate, that shapeless tiendly thing 



Which, when the heart its snaky folds intwine 

Is wasted quite, and when it doth I'epine 

To gorge such bitter prey, on all beside 

It turns with ninefold rage, as with its twine 

When Amphisbsena some fair bird has tied, 

Soon o'er the putrid mass he threats on every side, 

—L. <l' C. VIII. 21. 

1026 and as some most serene 

And lovely spot to a poor maniac's eye, 
After long years, some sweet and moving scene 
Of youthful hope returning suddenly, 
Quells his long madness — thus man shall remember thee. 

—L. cfe C. IX. 30. 



100 

1027 Each of that multitude alone, and lost 

To sense of outward things, one hope yet knew ; 
As on a foam -girt crag some seaman tost, 

1028 Stares at the rising tide, or like the crew 
Whilst now the ship is splitting thro' and thro' ; 
Each, if the tramp of a far steed was heard, 

Started from sick despair. — L. d: C. XI. 10. 

1029 upon the mutes she smiled ; 
And with her eloquent gestures, and the hues 
Of her quick lips, even as a weary child 

Wins sleep from some fond nurse with its caresses mild, 

She won tliem, tho' unwilling her to bind 

Near me among the snakes. — L. d: C. XII. 14, 15. 

1030 Two other babes, delightful more 
In my lost sours abandoned night. 
Than their own country's ships may be 
Sailing towards wrecked mariners, 

WHio cling to the rock of a wintr\' sea. — B. d- H. 391. 

1031 For public hope grew pale and dim 
In an altered time and tide. 

And in its wasting withered him, 

As a summer flower that blows too soon 

Droops in the smile of the waning moon, 

When it scatters through an April night 

The frozen dews of wrinkling blight. — R. tf H. 692. 

1032 Alas ! the unquiet life did tingle 

From mine own heart through every vein. 

Like a captive in dreams of liberty, 

Who beats the walls of his stony cell. —R. <L- H. 1033. 

1033 As the ghost of Homer clings 
Round Scamander's wasting springs ; 

1034 As divinest Shakespeare's might 
Fills Avon and the world with light 
Like omniscient power which he 
Imaged 'mid mortality ; 

1035 As the love from Petrarch's urn, 
Yet amid yon hills doth burn, 

A quenchless lamp by which the heart 

Sees things unearthly ; — so thou art 

Mighty spirit— so shall be 

The City that did refuge theo. —Eug. Hills, 194. 

1036 As the Norway woodman quells 
In the depth of piny dells. 

One light flame amid the brakes, 
While the boundless forest shakes. 
And its mighty trunks are torn 
By the fire thus lowly born : 
The spark beneath his feet is dead, 
He starts to see the flames it fed 
Howling through the darkened sky 
With a myriad tongues victoriously, 



110 

And sinks down in fear : so thou, 

O Tyranny, belioldest now 

Light around thee, and thou hearest 

The loud iiames ascend, and fearest : — Eug. H'dlx, 269. 

1037 'Tis an awful thing 
To touch such mischief as I now conceive : 
So men sit shivering on the dewy bank. 

And try the chill stream with their feet ; once in 

How the delighted spirit pants for joy ! — Ctnci, II. i. 124. 

1038 In the atmosphere we breathe, 

As buds grow red when the snowstorms flee, 
From spring gathering up beneath, 
Whose mild winds shake the elder brake, 
And the wandering lierdsmen know 
That the white thorn soon will blow : 
Wisdom, Justice, Love and Peace, 
When they struggle to increase, 

1039 Are to us as soft winds be 

To shepherd boys, the prophecy 

Which begins and ends in thee. — Prom. I. 790. 

1040 Look how the gusty sea of mist is breaking 
In crimson foam, even at our feet ! it rises 
As Ocean at the enchantment of the moon 
Round foodless men wrecked on some oozy isle. 

—Prom. II. iii. 43. 

1041 He sunk to the abyss? to the dark void ? 
Apollo. An eagle so caught in some bursting cloud 
On Caucasus, his thunder-baffled wings 
Entangled in the whirlwind, and his eyes 
Which gazed on the undazzling sun, now blinded 
By the white lightning, while the ponderous hail 
Beats on his struggling form, which sinks at length 

Prone, and the aerial ice clings over it. — Prom. III. ii. 10. 

1042 The flowers (as an infant's awakening eyes 
Smile on its mother, whose singing sweet 
Can first lull, and at last must awaken it), 
When Heaven's blithe winds had unfolded them. 

Shone smiling to heaven, — Se)M. P. I. 59. 

1043 The hurricane came from the west, and passed on 
By the path of the gate of the eastern sun. 
Transversely dividing the stream of the storm ; 
As an arrowy serpent, pursuing the form 

Of an elephant, bursts through the brakes of the waste. 

— Vision of Sea, 100. 

1044 Then, as a wild swan, when sublimely winging 

Its path athwart the thunder-smoke of dawn. 
Sinks headlong through the aerial golden light 
On the heavy-sounding plain. 
When the bolt has pierced its brain ; 



My song, its pinions disarrayed of might, 

Drooped ; — Ode to Lib. XIX. 



Ill 

1045 riie sun comes forth, and many i-eptiles spawn ; 
He sets, and each ephemeral insect then 

Is gathered into death without a dawn, 
And the immortal stars awake again ; 
So is it in the world of living men : 
A godlike mind soars forth, in its delight 
Making earth bare and veiling heaven, and when 
It sinks, the swarms that dimmed or shared its light 
Leave to its kindred lamps the spirit's awful night. 

—Adon. XXIX. 

1046 Russia still hovers, as an eagle might 
Within a cloud, near which a kite and crane 
Hang tangled in inextricable fight, 

To stoop upon the victor ; — Hell. 307. 

1047 From the surrounding hills, the battei'ies blazed. 
Kneading them down with fire and iron rain : 

. till, like a field of corn 
Under the hook of the swart sickleman, 
The band, entrenched in mounds of Turkish dead. 
Grew weak and few. — Nell. 380. 

1048 Like one who finds 
A fertile island in the barren sea. 

One mariner who has survived his mates 
Many a drear month in a great ship — so he 
With soul sustaining songs, and sweet debate 
Of ancient lore, there fed his lonely being : 

—Prince Ath. II. 1. 9. 

1049 Such was Zonoras ; and as daylight finds 
One amaranth glittering on the path of frost. 
When autumn nights have nipped all weaker kinds, 
Thus, through his age, dark, cold, and tempest-tost 

Shone truth upon Zonoras ; — Prince Ath. II. ii. 1. 

lOiO 'Twas the season when the Earth upsprings 
From slumber, as a sphered angel's child. 
Shadowing its eyes with green and golden wings, 
Stands up before its mother bright and mild. 
Of whose soft voice the air expectant seems — 
So stood before the sun, which shone and smiled 
To see it rise thus joyous from its di-eams, 
The fresh and radiant Earth. — Prince Ath. II. iii. 1. 

1051 such seemed the jubilee 
As when to greet some concjueror's advance 
Imperial Rome poured forth her living sea 
From the senate-house, and forum, and theatre, 

— Triumph, 111. 

1052 And her feet, ever to the ceaseless song 

Of leaves, and winds, and waves, and birds, and bees 

And falling drops, moved in a measure new 

Yet sweet, as on the summer evening breeze 

Up from the lake a shape of golden dew 

Between two rocks, athwart the rising moon 

Dances i' the wind, where never eagle flew ; — Triumph, 367. 



112 

1053 and she, thought by thought, 
Trampled its sparks into the dust of death : 
As day upon the threshold of the east 
Treads out the lamp of night, until the breath 
Of darkness re-illumine even the least 

Of heaven's living eyes — — Triiiviph, 387. 

1054 And as the presence of that fairest planet, 
Altho' unseen is felt by one who hopes 
That his day's path may end as he began it. 
In that star's smile, whose light, _ . 

1055 So knew I in that light's severe excess 

The presence of that shape which on the stream 

Moved as I moved along the wilderness, 

More dimly than a day-appearing dream. 

The ghost of a forgotten form of sleep ; 

A light of heaven whose half extinguished beam 

Through the sick day in which we wake to weep, 

Glimmers for ever sought, for ever lost ; 

So did that shape its obscure tenour keep 

Beside my path, as silent as a ghost ; — Triionph, 416. 

1056 The earth was grey with phantoms and the air 
Was peopled with dim forms, as when there hovers 
A flock of vampire bats before the glare 

Of the tropic sun, bringing, ere evening, 

Strange night upon some Indian isle ; thus were 

Phantoms diffused ai'ound, — Triumph, 482. 

1057 But he who gains by base and armed wrong, 
Or guilty fraud, or base c jmpliances. 

May be despoiled, even as a stolen dress 

Is stript from a convicted thief, and he 

Left in the nakedness of infamy — Fragm. Vol. 4, p. 8. 

1058 As a poor hunted stag 
A moment shudders on the fearful brink 

Of a swift stream — the cruel hounds press on 

With deafening yell, the arrows glance and wound. 

He plunges in ; so Orpheus, seized and torn 

By the sharp fangs of an insatiate grief, 

Mtenad-like waved his lyre in the bright air. 

And wildly shrieked ! — Orph. 46. 

1059 It never slackens, and through every change 
Wisdom and beauty and the power divine 
Of mighty poesy together dwell. 
Mingling in sweet accord. As I have seen 

A fierce south blast tear through the darkened sky. 

Driving along a rack of winged clouds. 

Which may not pause, but ever hurry on 

As their wild shepherd wills them, while the stars, 

Twinkling and dim, peep from between the plumes. — Orph. 84. 

1060 so that the world is bare, 
As if a spectre wrapt in shape'ess terror 
Amid a company of ladies fair 

Should glide and glow, till it became a mirror 



113 

Of all their beautj-, and their hair and hue 
The life of their sweet eyes, with all its error, 
fShould be absorbed, till they to marble grew. 

— Toirer of Famine, 16. 

1061 As the world leaps before an earthquake's dawn. 
And unprophetic of the coming hours, 
The matin winds from the expanded flowers 
Scatter their hoarded incense, and awaken 
The earth, until the dewy sUep is shaken 
From every living heart which it possesses, 
Through seas and winds, cities and wildernesses, 



iSo Gherardis' hall 
Laughed in the mirth of its lord's festivals, — Giner. \2%. 

1062 Thus do the generations of the earth 

Go to the grave, and issue from the womb, 

Surviving still the imperishable change 

That renovates the world ; even as the leaves 

Which the keen frost-wind of the waning year 

Has scattered on the forest soil, and heaped 

For manj' seasons there, though long they choke, 

Loading with loathsome rottenness the land, 

All germs of promise. — Q. M. V. 1. 

1063 Thus have I stood, — thro' a wild waste of jears 
Struggling with whirlwinds of mad agony. 



With stubborn and unalterable will. 

Even as a giant oak, which heaven's fierce flame 

Had scathed in the wilderness to stand 

A monument of fadeless ruin there ; — Q. M. VII. 254. 



Human to Natural. 

1064 serenely now 

And moveless, as a long-forgotten lyre 

Suspended in the solitary dome 

Of some mysterious fane, 

I wait thy breath, Great Parent — Alast. 41. 

1065 and men 

Go to their graves like flowers or creeping worms, — Alast. 621. 

1066 But when Heaven remained 
Utterly black, the murky shades involved 
An image, silent, cold, and motionless 

As their own voiceless earth and vacant air. —Alast. 659. 

1067 Thou w^ert as a lone star, whose light did shine 
On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar : 

1068 Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood 

Above the blind and battling multitude. — To Wordsw. 1. 

1069 Thus solemnized and softened, death is mild 
And terrorless as this eerenest night : 

— Summ. Ere. Chwxhy. 25. 



114 

1070 Her golden tresses shade 
The bosom's stainless pride, 

Twining like tendrils of the parasite 

Around a marble column — Z). W. 44. 

1071 Hard hearts and cold, like weights of icy stone 

Which crushed and withered mine, — Ded. L. d- C. VI. 

1072 for one then left this earth 
Whose life was like a setting planet mild, 
Which clothed thee in the radiance undefiled 

Of its departing glory ; — Ded. L. li- C. XII. 

1073 thou and I, ' 

Sweet friend ! can look from our tranquillity 
Like lamps into the world's tempestuous night, 

—Ded. L. d.- G. XIV. 

1074 There was a woman, beautiful as morning, 
Sitting beneath the rocks, upon the sand 

1075 Of the waste sea, fair as one flower adorning 

An icy wilderness— — L. d- C. I. 16. 

1076 In the world's youth his empire was as firm 

As its foundations — — L. dh C. I. 31. 

1077 and they [sc. impulses] were dear to memory 

Like tokens of the dead — L. dc C. II. "2. 

1078 I will arise and waken 

The multitude, and like a sulphurous hill. 

Which on a sudden from its snows has shaken 

The swoon of ages, it shall burst and fill 

The world with cleansing fire : — L. d- C. II. 14. 

79 As mine own shadow was that child to me, — L. ct C. II. 24. 

1080 thus subdued 

Like evening shades that o'er the mountain creep, 

We moved towards our home ; — L. d: C. II. 49. 

1081 Each heart was there a shield, and every tongue 

Was as a sword of truth — — L. d: C. IV. 10. 

1082 And every bosom thus is rapt and shook. 

Like autumn's myriad leaves in one swoln mountain brook. 

—L. d- C. IV. 13. 

1083 And then my youth fell on me like a wind 

Descending on still waters — — L. d: C. IV. 29. 

1084 To thy voice their hearts have trembled 
Like the thousand clouds which flow 

With one wide wind as it flies ! — L. db C. V. i. 

1085 and the stain 

Of blood from mortal steel fell o'er the fields like rain 

—L. d: C. VI. 6. 



115 

1086 in joy I found 
Beside me then, firm as a giant pine 
Among the mountain vapours driven around, 

The old man whom I loved— —L. dr C. VI. 10. 

1087 And there the living in the blood did welter 

Of the dead and dying, which in that green glen 

Like stifled torrents, made a plashy fen 

Under the feet— —L. <!• G. VI. 12. 

1088 That friend so mild and good 
Who like its shadow near my youth had stood. 

Was stabbed ! ' —L.dbC. VI. 15. 

1089 She pressed the white moon on his front with pure 

And rose-like lips, —L. d: C. VI. 26. 

1090 Her marble brow, and eager lips, like roses 

With their own fragrance pale, which Spring but half uncloses 

—L. d- C. VI. 33. 

1091 and then I felt the blood that burned 
Within her frame, mingle with mine, and fall 

Around my heart like fire ; — L. d: C. VI. 34. 

1092 So we sat joyous as the morning ray 

Which fed upon the wrecks of night and storm 

Now lingering on the winds : — L. d: C. VII. 1. 

1093 while tears pursued 

Each other down her fair and listening cheek 

Fast as the thoughts which fed them, like a flood 

From sunbright dales : —L. ct G. VII. 2. 

1094 Her madness was a beam of light, a power 

Which dawned through the rent soul ; and words it gave 
Gestures and looks, such as in whirlwinds bore 
Which might not be withstood, where none could save 

1095 All who approached their sphere, like some calm wave 
Vexed into whirlpools by the chasms beneath ; 

—L. d' G. VII. 7. 

1096 the ^thiop there 

Wound his long arms around her, and with knees 

Like iron clasped her feet, — L. d- G. VII. 9. 

1097 Ye shall be pure as dew —L. d: G. VIII, 18. 

1098 years have come and gone 

Since, like the ship which bears me, I have known 

No thought .... —L. dc G. VIII. 25. 

1099 Strange panic first, a deep and sickening dread 
Within each heart, like ice, did sink and dwell, 

—L. <£• G. X. 16. 

1 100 Some shrouded in their long and golden hair. 
As if not dead, but slumbering quietly 

Like forms which sculptors carve, then love to agonv. 

—L^dc G. X. 23. 



116 

1101 That nionsti-ous faith wherewith they ruled mankind, 
Fell, like a shaft loosed by the bowman's error, 

On their own hearts : — L. d- C. X. 26, 

1102 She trembled like one aspen pale 
Among the gloomy pines of a Norwegian vale. 

—L. <£• C. XII. 6. 

1103 The warm tears burst in spite of faith and fear, 
From many a tremulous eye, but like soft dews 
VN'hich feed spring's earliest buds, hung gathered there. 
Frozen by doubt,— — L. d- C. XII. 14. 

1104 I was clammy cold like clay. — H. d- H. 309. 

1105 Foul self-contempt, which drowns in sneers 
Youth's starlight smile, and makes its tears 

First like hot gall, then dry for ever ! — R. d- H. 479. 

1106 Many then wept, not tears but gall 
Within their hearts, like drops which fall 

Wasting the fountain-stone away. — H. d- H. 72L 

1107 my hopes wei'e once like iire : — /?. d' H. 764. 

1108 His motions, like the winds, were free. 
Which bend the bright grass gracefully, 

Then fade away in circlets faint : — B. d- H. 795. 

1109 Yet o'er liis talk, and looks, and mien. 
Tempering their loveliness too keen. 
Past woe its shadow backward threw. 
Till like an exhalation, spread 

From flowers half drunk with evening dew. 

They did become infectious : — R. lO //. 803. 

1110 And soon his deep and sunny hair, 
In this alone less beautiful. 

Like grass in tombs grew wild and rare. — R. d- H. 821. 

1111 His breath was like inconstant flame. 

As eagerly it went and came ; — R. <(• //. 834. 

1112 Like flowers, which on each other close 
Their languid leaves when daylight's gone. 

We lay " —A' d: H. 975. 

1113 But his [sr. life] it seemed already free. 

Like the shadow of fire surrounding me ! — R. d- H. 1037. 

1114 and they fed 

From the same flowers of thought, until each mind 
Like springs which mingle in one flood became, 

—R. <t- H. 1287. 

1115 Every little living nerve 
That from bitter words did swerve 
Round the tortured lips and brow, 
Are like sapless leaflets now 

Frozen upon December's bough — Eikj. HiUs, 40. 



117 

1116 And the sickle to the sword 

Lies unchanged, though many a lord, 

Like a weed whose shade is poison, 

Overgrows this region's foison, — •&X'/- Hillx, 225. 

1117 I rarely kill the body, which preserves 

Like a strong poison, the soul within my power, 

— Cejici, I. i. 114. 

1118 So when I wake my blood seems liquid fire ; 

—Cenri, II. ii. 186. 

1119 My tongue should like a knife tear out the secret 

Which cankers my heart's core ; — Cenci, III. i. 156. 

1120 May it be 
A hideous likeness of herself, that as 
From a distorting mirror, she may see 

Her image mixed with what she most abhors, 

Smiling upon her from her nursing breast. — Cenci, IV. i. 145. 

1121 I am as universal as the light ; 

1122 Free as the earth-surrounding air, as firm 

1123 As the world's centre. — Cencl, IV. iv. 48. 

1124 What are a thousand lives? A parricide 

Had trampled them like dust ; — Cfriiri, V. ii. 107. 

1125 The Pope is stern, not to be moved or bent. 
He looked as calm and keen as is the engine 
Which tortures and which kills, exempt itself 

From aught that it inflicts ; — Cenci, V. iv. 1. 

1126 A pilot asleep on the howling sea 
Leaped up from the deck in agony, 

And died as mad as the wild waves be — Prom. I. 95. 

1127 When thou didst from her bosom, like a cloud 

Of glory, arise, a spirit of keen joy ! — From. I. 157. 

1 128 Blood like new wine bubbles within : — Prom. I. 575. 

1129 And like the vapours when the sun sinks down, 
Gathering again in drops upon the pines, 

And tremulous as they, in the deep night 

My being was condensed : — Prom. II. i. 83. 

1130 Such the state 

Of the earth's primal spirits beneath his [so. Saturn's] sway 

As the calm joy of flowers and living leaves 

Before the wind or sun has withered them 

And semi-vital worms ; — Prom. II. iv. 34. 

1131 Yet if thou wilt, as 'tis the destiny 

Of trodden worms to writhe till they are dead. 

Put forth thy might ^Prom. III. i. 59. 

1132 to me 

Shall they [sc. human shapes] become like sister antelopes 

By one fair dam -^Prom. III. iii. 90. 



118 

1133 hate, disdain, or fear, 
Selfdove or self-contempt, on human brows, 
No more inscribed, as o'er the gate of hell, 

" All hope abandon ye who enter here ; " — Prom. III. iv. 133.- 

1134 A dark yet mighty faith, a power as wide 

As is the world it wasted, — Prom. III. iv. 174. 

1135 A Lady, the wonder of her kind. 

Whose form was upborne by a lovely mind 

Which, dilating, had moulded her mien and motion 

Like a sea-flower unfolded beneath the ocean — Sens. P. II. o.. 

1136 her child 

Is yet smiling, and playing, and murmuring ; so smiled 

The false deep ere the storm. — Vision of S. 165.. 

1137) 

1138 V Oh ! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud ! — 0<h to W. W. IV. 

1139J 

1140 Each heart was as a iiell of storms. — Ode to Lib. II. 

1141 Athens diviner yet 
Gleamed with its crest of colunms, on the will 

Of man, as on a mount of diamond, set ; — Odf to Lit>. V. 

1142 Tomb of Arminius I render up thy dead, 

Till, like a standard fi-om a watch-tower's staff", 
His soul may stream over the tyrant's head, 

^-Odeto Lib. XIV. 

1 143 and this Kingly paunch 

Swells like a sail before a favouring breeze, — (Ed. Tyr .1. i. 3. 

1144 and these 
Boeotian cheeks, like Egypt's pyramid 

(Nor with less toil were their foundations laid), 
Sustain the cone of my untroubled brain, 
That point, the emblem of a pointless nothing 

—a:d. Tyr. I. i. 6. 

1145 We — are we not formed, as notes of music are. 

For one another, though dissimilar. —Epips. 142.. 

1146 Imagination ! which from earth and sky. 
And from the depths of human phantasy, 
As from a thousand prisms and mirrors, fills 

The universe with glorious beams, — Epips. 164. 

1147 Her touch was as electric poison, — Epips. 259. 

1148 But now thy youngest, dearest one has perished, 
The nursling of thy widowhood who grew. 

Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished. 

And fed with true love tears, instead of dew ; — Aden. VI. 

1149 See on the silken fringe of his faint eyes. 
Like dew upon a sleeping flower, there lies 

A tear some dream has loosened from his brain. — Adon. X. 



119 



115) Midst others of less note came one frail Form, 
A phantom among men ; companionless 
As the last cloud of an expiring storm 
Whose thunder is its knell ; — Adon. XXXI. 

1151 Kings are like stars — they rise and set, they have 

The worshiji of the world, but no repose. — Hell. 195. 

1152 Time has found ye light as foam. — Hell. 442. 

1153 And the quick spring like weeds out of the dead. 

—Death of Nap. 24. 

1154 Through the black bars in the tempestuous air 
I saw, like weeds on a wrecked palace growing, 
Long tangled locks flung wildly forth and flowing 

— Julian, 223. 

1 155 though his lips did seem 
Like reeds which quiver in impetuous floods ; 

—Prince Ath. I. 63. 

1156 But we j'et stand 
In a lone land, 

Like tombs to mark the memory 
Of hopes and fears, 

11 57 Yet now despair itself is mild. 
Even as the winds and waters are ; 

1158 'tis to work and liave such pay 
As just keeps life from day to day 
In your limbs as in a cell 

11. i9 Blood is on the grass like dew. 

1160 What if English toil and blood 
Was poured forth even as a flood ? 

1161 Stand ye calm and resolute, 
Like a forest close and mute, 

1 1 62 he who was 
Like the shadow in the glass 
Of the second. 

116:-5 He had as much imagination 
As a pint-pot ; — 

1164 For language was in Peter's hand 
Like clay, 

1165 Is it my genius like the moon 
Sets those who stand her face inspecting 

1166 Like a crazed bell-chime, out of tune? 



— Lines, II. 
-Stanzas near Naples. 

— Mask, XL. 
—Mask, XLVIL 

—Mask, LX. 

—Mask, LXXIX. 

—Prol. Peter B. 13. 

—Peter B. IV. viii. 

—Peter B. V. xv. 

—Peter B. VI. x. 



1167 The language of a land which now is free. 

And winged with thoughts of truth and majesty 
Flits round the tyrant's sceptre like a cloud. 

—Letter to M. G. 176. 



120 

1168 till men should live and move 

Harmonious as tiie sacred stars above. — Witch, XVIII. 

1169 two lovei's linked innocently 

In their loose locks which over both did creep 

Like ivy from one stem ; — — Witch, LXI. 

1170 And I wander and wane like the weary moon, 

— Fraym. of Drama, 4. 

1171 He was as is the sun in his fierce youth, 

1172 As terrible and lov^ely as a tempest ; — Fragm. of Drama, 57. 

1173 And weeps like a soft cloud in April's bosom 
Upon the sleeping eyelids of the plant 

— Fragm. of Drama, 188. 

1174 But I, whom thoughts which must remain untold 
Had kept as wakeful as the stars that gem 

The cone of night. — Triumph, 21. 

1175 And o'er what seemed the head a cloud-like crape 

Was bent — Triumph, 91. 

1176 Till like two clouds into one vale impelled 

That shake the mountains when their lightnings mingle 

And die in rain — the fiery band which held 

Their natures, snaps — while the shock still may tingle 

— Triumph, 155. 

1177 till like a willow, 

Her fair liair swept the bosom of the stream — Triumph, 364. 

1178 And as a shut lily stricken by the wand 
Of dewy morning's vital alchemj', 

I rose ; — Triumph, 401. 

1179 and others made 
Circles around it, like the clouds that swim 

Round the high moon in a briglit sea of air ; — Triumph, 453. 

1180 For deaf as is a sea, which wrath makes hoary, 
The world can hear not the sweet notes that move 

The sphere whose light is melody to lovers — — Triumph, 477. 

1181 and long before the day 
Was old, the joy which waked like heaven's glance 

The sleepers in the oblivious valley, died ; — Triumph, 537. 

1182 Those marble shapes then seemed to quiver, 
And their fair limbs to float in motion, 

Like weeds unfolding in the ocean. — M.^a Dream, XXI. 

1183 My heart is quivering like a flame ; 

1184 As morning dew that in the sunbeam dies 

I am dissolved in these consuming ecstasies. — Const. III. 

1185 And thy tears upon my head 

Burn like points of frozen lead. — To Misery, VIII. 

1 1 86 Clasp me till our hearts be grown 

Like two shadows into one ; — To Misery, X. 



121 

1187 Her sons are as stones in the way. — Lines, II. 

1188 An army, which liberticide and prey 
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield 

— Sonnet on Eng. 

1189 As dew beneath the wind of morning, 

1190 As the sea which whirlwinds waken, 

Is my heart when thine is near. — Sophia, IV. 

1 191 Their caresses were like the chaff 

In the tempest, — Incantation. 

1192 One sung of thee who left the tale untold. 

Like the false dawns which perish in the bursting, 

1193 Like empty cups of wrought and daedal gold, 

Which mock the lips with air, when they are thirsting 

—Fragm. Vol. 4, p. 19. 

1194 And from its head as from one body grow. 
As grass out of a watery rock, 

Hairs which are vipers. — Medusa, IV. 

1195 And so they grew together like two flowers 

Upon one stem, which the same beams and showers 

Lull or awaken in their purple prime. 

Which the same hand will gather — the same clime 

Shake with decay — Fiord, 15. 

1196 But thou art as a planet, sphered above : — Fiord, 26. 

1197 That withered woman, grey and white and brown — 
Moi'e like a trunk by lichens overgrown 

Than anything which once could have been human. — Fiord, 56. 

1198 In my own heart I saw as in a glass 

The hearts of others — — Hope. 

1109 In whom love ever made 

Health like a heap of embers soon to fade. — To Emilia. 

1200 So that as if a frozen torrent 

The blood was curdled in its current ; — Love, 24. 

1201 Like a herbless plain, for the gentle rain 

I gasp, I faint, till they wake again. — Music, I. 

1202 When you die, the silent Moon 
In her interlunar swoon 

Is not sadder in her cell 

Than deserted Ariel. 

When you live again on earth, 

1203 Like an unseen star of birth, 
Ariel guides you o'er the sea 
Of life from your nativity. 

And now, alas, the poor sprite is 
Imprisoned for some fault of his 

1204 In a body like a grave — — With a Guitar, 23. 



122 

1205 Then like a useless and outworn machine 

Rots, perishes and passes. — Q. M. I. 155. 

1206 Man like these passive things 
Thy will unconsciously fulfiUeth : 

1207 Like theirs, his age of endless peace, 
Which time is fast maturing. 

Will swiftly, surely come : — <?. M. III. 233. 



Human to Human. 

1208 My powers revived within me, and I went 

As one whom winds waft o'er the bending grass, 
Through many a vale of that broad continent 

— i. ct- C. IV. 33. 

1209 I stood, as drifted on some cataract 

By irresistible streams, some wretch might strive 

Who hears its fateful roar : — L. ct- C. VI. 6. 

1210 For with strong speech I tore the veil that hid 
Nature, and Truth, and Liberty, and Love — 
As one who from some mountain's pyramid 

Points to the unrisen sun. — L. db C. IX. 7- 

1211 I am as one lost in a midnight wood. 

Who dares not ask some harmless passenger 

The path across the wilderness, lest he 

As my thoughts are, should be a murderer. — Genci, II. ii. 93. 

1212 Till, like one in slumber bound. 

Borne to the ocean, I float down, around 
Into a sea profound, of ever-spreading sound 

—Prom. II. V. 82. 

1213 all my being 
Like him whom the Numidian seps did thaw 

Into a dew with poison, is dissolved — Prom. III. i. 39. 

1214 And then as one 
Whose sleeping face is stricken by the sun 
With light like a harsh voice, which bids him rise 



-Ginev. 38. 



Human to Animal (or reverse). 

1215 Two mighty Spirits now return, 
Like birds of calm, from the world's raging sea, 

—L. <{• G. I. 58. 

1216 fear with lust 

Strange fellowship through mutual hate had tied. 
Like two dark serpents tangled in the dust. 
Which on the paths of men their mingling poison thrust. 

—L. <L- C. II. 4. 



123 

1217 Cythna then 

and through the paths of men 
Will pass, as the charmed bird that haunts the serpent's den 

—L. rf- C. II. 46. 

1218 Thirst raged within me, like a scorpion's nest 

Built in my entrails : — L. ct* C. III. 21. 

1219 The tyrant's guards resistance yet maintain : 
Fearless and fierce, and haid as beasts of blood, 

—L. <k C. IV. 26. 

1220 Those sanguine slaves. 

Like rabid snakes, that sting some gentle child 

Who brings them food, when winter false and fair 

Allures tliem forth with its cold smiles, so wild 

They rage among the camp : — L. d: C. V. 6, 7. 

1221 But he (sc. the sceptred wretch) 

Glared on me as a toothless snake might glare 

—L. d- C. V. 25. 

1222 Sorrow and shame, to see with their own kind 
Our human brethren mix, like beasts of blood 

To mutual ruin armed — — L. ct- C VI. 15. 

1223 And impotent their tongues they lolled into the air 
Flaccid and foamy, like a mad dog's hanging, 

— L. <L- C. VI. 16, 17. 

1224 as a friend whose smile 
Like light and rest at morn and even is sought, 

That wild bird was to me, — L. <£• (J. VII. 14. 

1225 obediently they came. 

Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings 

To the stall, red with blood ; ~L. ct- C. X. 5. 

1226 and swore 

1227 Like wolves and serpents, to their mutual wars 
Strange truce, — L. d- C. X. 7. 

1228 All night, the lean hyaenas their sad case 

Like starving infants wailed — L. d' G. X. 15. 

1229 See ! See ! they fawn 

Like dogs, and they will sleep with luxury spent, 
When those detested hearts their iron fangs have rent ! 

—L. d- C. X. 37. 

1230 and with an inward fear possest. 

They raged like homeless beasts whom burning woods invest 

—L. ct- C. X. 40. 

1231 So she scourged forth the maniac multitude 
To rear this pyramid — tottering and slow. 
Plague-stricken, foodless, like lean herds pursued 

By gad-flies, they have piled the heath, and gums, and wood 

—L. d; C. X. 42. 



124 

1232 each girt by the hot atmosphere 
Of his blind agony, like a scorpion stung 

By his own rage upon his burning bier 

Of circling coals of fire ; — L. <£■ C. XI. 8. 

1233 When, like twin vultures, they hung feeding 

On each heart's wound, — R. db H. 932. 

1234 I looked, and knew that he was dead. 
And fell, as the eagle on the plain 

Falls when life deserts her brain, — R. d: H. 1183. 

1235 Those who alone thy towers behold 
Quivering through aerial gold 

Would imagine not they were 

Sepulchres, where human forms 

Like pollution-nourished worms 

To the corpse of greatness cling, 

Murdered, and now mouldering : - — Eug. Hill", 142, 

1236 And we are left, as scorpions ringed with fire. — Cenci. II. ii. 70. 

1237 I know two dull, fierce outlaws 

Who think man's spirit as a worm's, — Cenci, III. i. 233. 

1238 What ! can the everlasting elements 

Feel with a worm, like man ? — Cenci, III. ii. 2. 

1239 Heaven, rain upon her head 
The blistering drops of the Mai-emm's dew, 

Till she be speckled like a toad ; — Cenci, IV. i. 130. 

1240 Until the subject of a tyrant's will 
Became, worse fate, the abject of his own, 

Which spurred him, like an outspent horse, to death. 

—Prom. III. iv. 139. 

1241 And the sharks and the dog-fish their grave-clothes unbound 
And were glutted like Jews with this manna rained down 
From God on their wilderness. — Virion of Sea, 56. 

1242 Chameleons feed on light and air ; 

Poet's food is love and fame ; 
If in this wide world of care 

Poets could but find thfe same 
With as little toil as they. 

Would they ever change their hue 

As tlie light chameleons do, 
Suiting it to every ray 
Twenty times a day ? — Exhortation, 1. 

1243 Poets are on this cold earth. 

As chameleons might be, 
Hidden from their early birth 

In a cave beneath the sea, — Exhortation, 10. 

1244 an antelope 
In the suspended impulse of its lightness 

Were less ittherially light. — Epips. 75. 



125 

1245 And towards the loadstar of my one desire 

I flitted, like a dizzy moth, — Epips. 219. 

1246 Then as a hunted deer that could not flee, 

I turned upon my thoughts, and stood at bay, 

Wounded and weak and panting, — Epips. 272. 

1247 My muse has lost her wings, 

Or like a dying swan who soars and sings, 

I should describe you in heroic style, — Cane. Epips. 84. 

1248 Not so the eagle, who like thee could scale 

1249 Heaven, and could nourish in the sun's domain 
Her mighty youth with morning, doth complain. 
Soaring and screaming round her empty nest 

' As Albion wails for thee, — Adon. XVII. 

1250 A pardlike spirit beautiful and swift — Adon. XXXII. 

1251 And like a beaten hound tremble thou shalt — as now. 

—Adon. XXXVII. 

1252 In the great morning of the world, 
The Spirit of God unfurled 

The Flag of Freedom over Chaos, 

And all its banded anarchs fled, 
Like vultures frightened from Imaiis, 

Before an earthquake's tread. — — Hell. 46. 

1253 Nor at thy bidding less exultingly 
Than birds rejoicing in the golden day. 
The Anarchies of Africa unleash 

Their tempest-winged cities of the sea, — Hell. 297. 

1254 And the inheritors of the earth, like beasts 
When earthquake is unleashed, with idiot fear 

Cower in their dens — — Hell. 356. 

1255 The vultures and the dogs, your pensioners tame. 
Are overgorged ; but, like oppressors, still 

They crave the relic of Destruction's feast. — Hell. 427. 

1256 Repulse is on the waters ! 

They own no more the thunder-bearing banner 
Of Mahmud ; but like hounds of a base breed. 
Gorge from a stranger's hand, and rend their master. 

—Hell. 466. 
They [.sf. vultures] 

Stooped through the sulphurous battle-smoke, and perched 
Each on the weltering carcase that we loved 
1257, 1258 Like its ill angel or its damned soul, — Hell. 517. 

1259 The Greeks 
Are as a brood of lions in the net 

Round which the kingly hunters of the earth 

Stand smiling. ' —Hell. 931. 

1260 And as a jade urged by the wliip and goad 

To drag life on, — Jtdian, 301. 



126 

1261 Nay, was it I who wooed thee to this breast 
Wliich, like a serpent thou envenomest 

As in repayment of the warmth it lent ? — Julian, 398. 

1262 Even the instinctive worm on which we tread 
Turns, tho' it wound not, then with prostrate head 

Sinks in the dust and writhes like me. — Julian, 412. 

1263 Men of England, heirs of Glory 

Rise like Lions after slumber 

In unvanquishable number, —Mask, XXXVII. , XXXVIII. 

1264 There are mincing women, mewing, 
Like cats, who amant misere 

Of their own virtue, — Peter B. III. viii. 

1265 Each pursues what seems most fair, 
Mining like moles, through mind, and there 

Scoop palace-caverns vast, — Peter B. III. xxiii. 

1266 A toad-like lump of limb and feature, — Peter B. IV. xvi. 

1267 And so his soul would not be gay, 
But moaned within him, like a fawn 

Moaning within a cave, — Peter B. VI. xxx. 

1268 And the wood-gods in a crew 
Came, blithe, as in the olive copses thick 

Cicadse are, drunk with the noon-day dew : — Witch, VIII. 

1269 like a sexless bee 

Tasting all blossoms, and confined to none, — Witch, LXVIII. 

1270 He lives in his own world, and like a parrot 
Hung in his golden prison from the window 
Of the queen's bower over the public way. 

Blasphemes with a bird's mind : — Chas. I. II. 102. 

1271 The slave of thine own slaves who tear like curs 

The fugitive, and flee from the pursuer ; — Chas. I. II. 123. 

1272 To which the eagle spirits of the free 



Like eaglets floating in the heaven of time, 

They soar above their quarry, and shall stoop 

Through palaces and temples thunder-proof — Chas. I. IV. 51. 

1273 but as soon 

As they had touched the world with living flame, 

Fled back like eagles to their native noon, — Triumph, 129. 

1274 Maidens and youths flung their wild arms in air 
As their feet twinkle ; they recede, and now 
Bending within each other's atmosphere, 
Kindle invisibly — and as they glow 

Like moths by light attracted and repelled, 

Oft to their bright destruction come and go, — Triumph, 149. 

1275 Amid the mountains like a hunted beast 

He hid himself, — Mareiighi, XIII. 



127 

1276 Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know 

But leech-like to their fainting country cling, — Sonnet, 4. 

1277 As from an ancestral oak 

Two empty ravens sound their clarion 
Yell by yell and croak by croak 
When they scent the noon-day smoke 

Of fresh human carrion : — 

1278 As two gibbering night-birds flit 

From their bowers of deadly yew 
Through the night to frighten it, 
When the moon is in a fit, 

And the stars are none or few : — 

1279 As a shark and dog-fish wait 

Under an Atlantic isle, 
For the negro-ship, whose freight 
Is the theme of their debate, 

Wrinkling their red gills the while — 

Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, 

— Similes, Vol. 4, p. 6. 

1280 As the birds at thunder's warning 

Is my heart when thine is near it. — Sophia. 

1281 Her form was like a snake's — wrinkled and loose 

And withered. — Fragm. 

1282 Like a blood-hound well-beaten, 

The bridegroom stands, —Fugitive, TV. 

1283 The fair hand that wounded it. 
Seeking, like a panting hare, 

Refuge in the lynx's lair, — Love, etc. 

1284 and soon the priests arrived. 
And finding death their penitent had shrived. 
Returned like ravens from a corpse whereon 

A vulture had just feasted to the bone. — Ginev. 191. 

1285 The mind, which like a worm whose life may share 
A portion of the unapproachable 

Marks your creation's rise. — To Byron. 

1286 custom's force has made 

His nature as the nature of a lamb. — Q. M. VIII. 27. 

Human Beings or Attributes to Personified Abstractions 
(Spirits, Shapes, etc.) 

1287 Nature's most secret steps 

He like his shadow has pursued, — Alast. 81. 

1288 A Form most like the imagined habitant 
Of silver exhalations sprung from dawn, 

By winds which feed on sunrise woven, — L, cfc C. V. 44. 



128 

1289 A liquid element, whereon 

Our Spirits, like delighted things 

That walk the air on subtle wings, 

Floated and mingled far away, 

'Mid the warm winds of the sunny day. — /?. cfe H. 963. 

Natural Phenomena to Natural. 

He wandered on 

1290 Till vast Aornos seen from Petra's steep 

Hung o'er the low horizon like a cloud : — Alast. 239. 

1291 Spirit of Nature ! thou 
Imperishable as this glorious scene. 

Here is thy fitting temple. — D. W. 186. 

Its home 

1292 The voiceless lightning in these solitudes 
Keeps innocently, and like vapour broods 

Over the snow. — Mont. B. 136. 

1293 For, from the encounter of those wondrous foes, 
A vapour like the sea's suspended spray 

Hung gathered : — L. <i; C. I. 11. 

1294 A boat of rare device, wliich has no sail 
But its own curved prow of thin moonstone, 
Wrought like a web of texture fine and frail, 

To catch those gentlest winds — L. d; C. I. 23. 

1295 This vital world, this home of happy spirits 

Was as a dungeon to my blasted kind, — L. d- C. II. 6. 

1296 The islands and the mountains in the day, 

Like clouds reposed afar, — L. (fc C. III. 15. 

1297 a whirlwind keen as frost —L. & C. III. 26. 

1298 I led him forth from that which now might seem 

A gorgeous grave ; — L. <fe C. V. 26. 

1299 To see like some vast island from the ocean, 
TheAltar of the Federation rear 

Its pile in the midst ; — L. d- C. V. 40. 

1300 Then : "Away ! away ! " she cried, and stretched her sword 
As 'twere a scourge over the courser's head, — L. d' C. VI. 21. 

that spacious cell 

1301 Like an upaithric temple wide and high. 

Whose aery dome is inaccessible, — L. d; C. VII. 12. 

and on such bright floor did stand 

1302 Columns, and shapes like statues, — L. d- C. VII. 13. 

1303 The misery of a madness slow and creeping, 

1304 Which made the earth seem fire, the sea seem air, 

—L. cfc C. VII. 15. 



12iJ 

And I became at last even as a shade, 

A smoke, a cloud on which the winds have preyed, 

1305 Till it be thin as air ; —L. tfc C. VII. 26. 

Thither still the myriads came, 

1306 Seeking to quench the agony of the flame, 

Which raged like poison through their bursting veins : 

—L. ct- C. X. 21. 

1307 Steady and swift, where the waves rolled like mountains 
Within the vast ravine, whose rifts did pour 
Tumultuous floods from their ten thousand fountains. 
The tliunder of whose earth-viplifting roar 

Made the air sweep in whirlwinds from the shore, 

1308 Calm as a shade, the boat of that fair child 

Securely fled, - L. <k C. XII. 39. 

1309 And in the midst, afar, even like a sphere 
Hung in one hollow sky, did there appear 
The Temple of the Spirit ; on the sound 

Which issued thence, drawn nearer and more near, 

1310 Like the swift moon this glorious earth around, 

The charmed boat approached, and there its haven found. 

—L. <k C. XII. 41- 

1311 O'er which the columned wood did frame 
A I'oofless temple, like the fane 

Where, ere new creeds could faith obtain, 

Man's early race once knelt beneath 

The overhanging deity. — B. d- H. 107. 

1312 The next Spring shows leaves pale and rare 
But like flowers delicate and fair 

On its rent boughs —7?. <fc H. 789. 

1313 And weeds like branching chrysolite, —R. <t,- H. 1083. 

1314 Save where many a palace gate 
With green sea-flowers overgrown 
Like a rock of ocean's own, 
Topples o'er the abandoned sea 

As the tides change sullenly. — Eug. Hills, 12P. 

1315 Oh, thou bright wine 

Could I believe thou wert their mingled blood. 

Then would I taste thee like a sacrament — Cenci, I. iii. 77. 

1316 Thou knowest 
This cell seems like a kind of paradise 

After our father's presence. — Cenci, V. iii, 10. 

1317 Brother, lie down with me upon the rack, 

It soon will be as soft as any grave — Cenci, V. iii. 48. 

1318 and mighty realms 

Float by my feet, like sea-uprooted isles, — Frojn. I. 612. 

1319 Mightj- fleets were strewn like chaff' —Prom. I. 716. 
9 



130 

1320 Henceforth the fields of heaven-reflecting sea 

Which are my realm, will heave, unstained with blood. 

Beneath the uplifting winds, like plains of corn 

Swayed by the summer air, — Prom. III. ii. 18. 

1321 Behold the Nereids under the gi-een sea, 

Their wavering limbs borne on the wind-like stream, 

—Prom. III. ii. 44. 

1322 The dew-mists of my sunless sleep shall float 

Under the stars like balm : — Prom. III. iii. 100. 

1323 The image of a temple, built above. 
Distinct with column, arch, and architrave. 

And palm-like capital — Prom. III. iii. 161. 

1324 and in the deep there la}' 

Those lovely forms imaged as in a sky ; — Prom. III. iv. 82. 

1325 I see a chariot like that thinnest boat, 

In which the mother of the months is borne 
By ebbing night into her western cave, 
When she upsprings from interlunar dreams, 

1326 O'er which is curved an orb-like canopy 

Of gentle darkness, and the hills and woods 
Distinctly seen through that dusk airy veil, 

1327 Regard like shapes in an enchanted glass ; — Prom. IV. 206. 

1328 A sphere, which is as many thousand spheres. 

Solid as crystal, —Prom. IV. 238. 

1329 Until each crag-like tower, — Prom. IV. 344. 

1330 My sea-like forests —Prom. IV. 347. 

1331 And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light — Seihi. P. I. 3. 

1332 And the wand-like lily -Seiis. P. I. 33. 

1333 And the sinuous paths of lawn and of moss. 

Were all paved with daisies and delicate bells 

As fair as the fabulous asphodels, — Sens. P. I. 49. 

1334 The quivering vapours of dim noon-tide, 

Which like a sea o'er the warm earth glide, — Sens. P. I. 90. 

1335 And agarics, and fungi, with mildew and mould. 
Started like mist from the wet ground cold ; 

—Sen.-<. P. III. 62. 

1336 Their moss rotted off them, flake by flake, 

Till the thick stalk stuck like a murderer's stake. 

Where rags of loose flesh yet tremble on high. 

Infecting the winds that wander by. — Seni^. P. III. 66. 

1337 And at its outlet, flags huge as stakes 

Dammed it up I —Sem. P. III. 72. 

1338 And when lightning is loosed, like a deluge from heaven. 
She sees the black trunks of the water-spouts spin 

And bend as if Heaven was ruining in, — Vis. of Sea, 4. 



131 

1339 The great ship seems splitting, it cracks as a tree, 

While an earthquake is splintering its root, — Vis. of Sea, 26. 

1340 One deck is burst up from the waters below, 

And it splits like the ice when the thaw-breezes blow 

O'er the lakes of the desert — Vis. of Sea, 35. 

the screaming blast, 

1341 Between ocean and heaven, like an ocean, past. 

— Vis. of Sea, 105. 

1342 Till it came to the clouds on the verge of the world 
Which, based on the sea and to heaven upcurled, 
Like columns and walls, did surround and sustain 
The dome of the tempest ; it rent them in twain. 
As, a flood rends its barriers of mountainous crag : 
And the dense clouds in many a ruin and ray, 

1343 Like the stones of a temple ere earthquake has past, 

1344 Like the dust of its fall, on the whirlwind are cast ; 

— Vis. of Sea, 107. 

1345 Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor. — Cloud, 47- 

1346 When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, 

Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas, 
Like strips of the sky fallen thro' me on high, 

Are each paved with the moon and these — — Cloud, 55. 

1347 From cape to oape, with a bridge-like shape, 

1348 Sunbeam-proof I hang like a roof, 

The mountains its columns be. — fllnyd^ 63. 

1349 And cloud-like mountains, — Ode to Lib. IV. 

And many a warrior-peopled citadel, 

1350 Like rocks which fire lifts out of the flat deep. 

Arose in sacred Italy, — Ode to Lib. IX. 

Her petticoats streaming 
Streaming like — like— like 
Anything. 

Purganax. Oh, no, 

1351 But like a standard of an Admiral's ship, 

1352 Or like the banner of a conquering host, 

1353 Or water-fall from a dizzy precipice 

Scattered upon the wind. — (Ed. Tyr. 11. 95. 

to whom this world of life 

1354 Is as a garden ravaged — Epips. 186. 

1355 When it would seek in Hesper's setting sphere 
A radiant death, a fiery sepulchre. 
As if it were a lamp of earthly flame. — Epips. 222. 

1356 It would have followed, tho' the grave between 

Yawned like a gulph whose spectres are unseen : — Epips. 230. 

1357 It is an isle under Ionian skies. 

Beautiful as a wreck of Paradise, — Epips. 422. 



132 

1358 And level with the living winds, whicli flow 

Like waves above the living waves below. — Epips. 517. 

1359 A veil for our seclusion, close as night, — Epipt. 556. 

1360 Of life which flows like a . . . dream 
Into the light of morning, to the grave 

As to an ocean. — Caiic. Epips. 151. 

1361 Another dipt her profuse locks, and threw 
The wreath upon him like an anadem, 

Which frozen tears instead of pearls begem ; — Adon. XI. 

(4o thou to Rome — 

1362 And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, 

—Adon. XLIX. 

and lofty ships even now 

1363 Like vapours anchored to a mountain's edge. 
Freighted with fire and whirlwind, wait at Scala 

The convoy of the ever-veering wind. — Hell. 283, 

1364 The fleet which, like a flock of clouds 

Chased by the wind, flies the insurgent banner. — Hell. 460. 

Crete and Cyprus, 

1365 Like mountain twins, that from each other's veins 
Catch the volcano-fire and earthquake spasm, 

Shake in the general fever. — Hell. 587. 

A chasm 

1366 As of two mountains in the wall of Stamboul ; — Hell. 830. 

1367 Between kingless continents sinless as Eden — Hell. 1047. 

1368 It [.sc. earth] was cloudy, and sullen, and cold, 

Like a frozen chaos uproUed, — Death of Napoleon. 

1369 Those famous Euganean hills, which bear. 
As seen from Lido through the harbour-piles, 

The likeness of a clump of peaked isles — — Julian, 11. 

1370 I leaned and saw the city, and could mark 
How from their many isles in evening's gleam 
Its temples and its palaces did seem 

Like fabrics of enchantment piled to Heaven — Jvllan, 89. 

1371 On its helm, seen far away 

A planet, like the Morning's lay ; — Mask, XXVI. 

1372 Men of England, heirs of Olory, 

Shake your chains to earth like dew 

Which in sleep had fallen on you, — il/a.sA-, XXXVIII. 

1373 A cloud, with lightning, wind and hail. 
It swept over the mountains like 

An ocean, — Peter Bell, I. xii. 



133 

1374 And worse and worse, the drowsy curse 
Yawned in him, till it grew a pest — 

A wide contagious atmosphere. 

Creeping like cold through all things near ; 

-^Peter Bell, VII. xvii. 

1375 woven tracery ran 

Of light firm texture, ribbed and branching, o'er 
The solid rind, like a leaf's veined fan — 

— Witch, XXXIII. 

1376 Where like a meadow which no scythe has shaven ; 

Which rain could never bend, or whirl-blast shake. 
With the Antarctic constellations paven, 

Canopus and his crew, lay the Austral lake — 

__jfj^c/i, XLVIII. 

1377 this haven 

Was as a gem to copy heaven engraven. — Witch, L. 

1378 And where within the surface of the river 

The shadows of the massy temples lie, 
And never are erased — but tremble ever 

Like things which every cloud can doom to die, 

— Witch, lAX. 

1379 And as a veil in which I walk through Heaven 

I have wrought mountains, seas, and waves, and clouds, 

And lastly light, whose interfusion dawns 

In the dark space of interstellar air. ^Uiifin. Drama, 24. 

1380 A soft hand issued from the veil of fire, 
Holding a cup like a Magnolia flower, 
And poured upon the earth within the vase 
The element with which it overflowed, 
Brighter than morning light, and purer than 

The waters of the springs of Himalah. — Untiii. Drama, 145. 

1381 And thus it [sc. the fruit] lay in the Elysian calm 
Of its own beauty, floating on the line 

Which, like a film in purest space, divided 

The heaven beneath the waters from the heaven 

Above the clouds ; — Unfiu. Drama, 228. 

See those thronging chariots 
Rolling, like painted clouds before the wind, 
Eehind their solemn steeds : how some are shaped 

1382 Like curved shells dyed by the azure depths 

1383 Of Indian seas : some like the new-born moon, 

1384 And some like cars in which the Romans climbed 
(Canopied by Victory's eagle wings outspread) 

The Capitolian. ' —Chas. I. I. 136. 

1385 This vaporous horizon, whose dim round 
Is bastioned by the circumfluous sea. 
Repelling invasion from the sacred towers, 
Presses upon me like a dungeon's gfate, 

A low dark roof, a damp and narrow wall. — CAaf. /. IV. 41. 



134 

1386 Isle, ocean and all things that in them wear 
The form and character of mortal moidd, 
Rise as the Sun their father rose to bear 
Their portion of the toil which he of old 

Took as his own, and then imposed on them. — Trhnnph, 16. 

1387 And from it came a gentle rivulet, 

Whose water like clear air, in its calm sweep 
^ Bent the soft grass, and kept forever wet 

The stems of the sweet flowers, — Trinnijih, 314, 

yet contagion there 

1388 Spread like a quenchless fire ; —D. W. II. 129. 

1389 the flood 
Grew tranquil as a woodland river 

Winding through hills in solitude, — Marianne s I). XXI. 

1390 And their swofds and their sceptres I floating see, 

Like wrecks on the surge of eternity. — Wm. SheUey, IV. 

They spread themselves into the loveliness 

1391 Of fan-like leaves, and over pallid flowers 

1392 Hang like moist clouds : — or where high branches kiss. 
Make a green space among the silent bowers 

1393 Like a vast fane in a metropolis. — Woodman, 52. 

1394 Surrounded by the columns and the towers 

All overwrought with branch-like traceries, — Woodman, 57. 

1395 which makes 
Even the mud and slime of the warm lakes 

A wrinkled clod as hard as brick ; — Summer and Winter, 13. 

1396 The wreaths of stony myrtle, ivy, and pine, 
Like winter leaves o'ergrown by moulded snow, 

— To X'ajj/es, 17.. 

1397 And where the Baian ocean 
Welters with air like motion, 

Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, 
Moving tlie sea flowers in those purple caves 
Even as the ever stormless atmosphere 

Floats o'er the Elysian realm, — To Xap/es, 26. 

1398 thy shield is as a mirror 

To make their blind slaves see, and with fierce gleam 

To turn his hungry sword upon the wearer ; — To Naples, 78. 

1399 The Earth is like Ocean, 

Wreck-strewn and in motion : — Fngitive-s, I. 

1400 While around the lashed Ocean, 
Like mountains in motion. 

Is withdrawn and uplifted, 
Sunk, shattered and shifted 

To and fro. — Fugitires, III. 

1401 Nourishing each tender gem 

Which like flowers will burst from them. — Epith. 29. 



135 

14Q2 Through desert woods and tracts, which seem 
Like ocean, homeless, boundless, unconfined. 

— Fragm. Wandering. 

1403 The chasm in which the sun has sunk is shut 

By darkest barriers of cinereous cloud, 
Like mountains over mountains huddled — — Evening, IV. 

1404 Which the circumfluous plain waving below, 

Like a wide lake of green fertility, 
With streams and fields and marshes bare. 

Divides from the far Apennines — which lie 
Islanded in the immeasurable air. — Serchio, 41. 

1405 and its flowers fair. 

Full as a cup with the vine's burning dew, 
O'erflowed with golden colours. — Zucca, IX. 

1406 Now all the tree toj^s lay asleep, 
Like green waves on the sea. 
As still as in the silent deep 

The ocean woods may be. — To Jane Recoil. III. 

1407 I sat and saw the vessels glide 
Over the ocean bright and wide, 
Like spirit-winged chariots sent 
O'er some serenest element 

For ministration strange and far ; 

As if to some Elysian star 

Sailed for drink to medicine 

Such sweet and bitter pain as mine. — Line'< in Bay ofh. .31. 

1408 Till from the breathing lawn a forest springs 
Of youth, integrity, and loveliness. 

Like that which gave it life, to spring and die. 

~Q. M. V. 13. 



Natural to Human Beings — Human Attributes^Natural 
Phenomena to Mental Phenomena — Spirits, etc. 

1409 Now on the polished stones 

It [sc. rivulet] danced, like childhood laughing as it went 

—Alast. 498. 

1410 Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they come and go 

—Stanzas 1814, 11. 

1411 Calm as a slumbering babe 

Tremendous ocean lay. — Z>. W. I. 134. 

1412 and there the sea I found 

Calm as a cradled child in dreamless slumber bound 

—L. & C. I. XV. 

1413 The Morning Star 
Shone 

'Twas like an eye which seemed to smile on me 

—L. tfc C. I. xl. 



136 

1414 Sculptures like life and thought ; immovable, deep-eyed. 

—L. ci- C. I. li. 

1415 what was this cave ? 

Its deep foundations no firm purpose knows 
Immutable, resistless, strong to save, 
Like mind while yet it mocks the all-devouring grave 

— L. <{• C. VII. xxviii. 

1416 Oh, thou bright wine whose purple splendour leaps 
And bubbles gaily in this golden bowl 

Under tlie lamplight, as my spirits do, — Cenci, I. iii. 77. 

1417 beneath this crag 
Huge as despair, as if in weariness. 

The melancholy mountain yawns. — Cenci, III. i. 255. 

1418 Thou small flame 
Which, as a dying pulse rises and falls, 

Still flickerest up and down, — Cenci, III. ii. 11. 

1419 the vain and senseless crowd, 
Who, ... . 

will leave 
The churches and the theatres as void 
As their own hearts ? — Cenci, V. iii. 36. 

1420 made earth like heaven ; — Prom. III. iv. 160. 

1421 and water springs 

Whence the great sea, even as a child, is fed — Prom. IV. 284. 

1422 And the Naiad-like lily of the vale —Sens. Plant, I. 21. 

1423 And the rose like a Nymph to the bath addressed. 
Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast 
Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air. 

The soul of her beauty and love lay bare : — Sens. Plant, I. 29. 

1424 The unseen clouds of the dew, which lie 
Like fire in the flowers till the sun rides high, 
Then wander like spirits among the spheres. 
Each cloud faint with the fragrance it bears : 

—Sens. Plant, I. 86. 

1425 Each and all like ministering angels were 

For the Sensitive Plant sweet joy to bear. — Sens. Plant, I. 94. 

1426 The garden, once fair, became cold and foul, 
Like the coi-pse of her who had been its soul. 

—Se7is. Plant, III. 17. 

1427 And the leaves . . . 



Like troops of ghosts on the drv wind past ; 

—Sens. Plant, III. 34. 

1428 And agarics and fungi 



Pale, fleshly, as if the decaying dead 
With a spirit of growth had been animated 

—Sens. Plant, III. 62. 



137 

1429 The Sensitive Plant like one forbid 

Wept, —Sens. Plant, III. 82. 

1430 But the mandrakes, and toadstools, and docks and darnels 
Rose like the dead from their ruined eharnels, 

—Sens. Plant, III. 116. 

1431 Whether the Sensitive Plant, or that 
Which within its boughs like a spirit sat 

Now felt this change, 1 cannot say. — Sens. Plant, Concl. I. 

1432 The heavy dead hulk 
On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk. 

Like a corpse on the clay which is hungering to fold 

Its corruption around it. — Vision of Sea, 31. 

1433 Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead 
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, 

— West Wind, I. 

1434 Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, 

1435 I arise and unbuild it again . — Cloud, 83. 

1436 the odours deep 

Of flowers, which like lips murmuring in their sleep 

Of the sweet kisses that had lulled them there, 

Breathed but of her to the enamoured air : — Epips. 202. 

1437 Let the fixed bayonet 
(jtleam with sharp desire to wet 
Its bright point in English blood 

Looking keen as one for food. — Mask, LXXVII. 

1438 like children chidden 

At her command they [sc. billows] ever came and went — 

— Witch, IV. 

1439 Couched on the fountain like . 

Or on blind Homer's heart a winged thought. 

In joyous expectation lay the boat — Witch, XXXIV. 

1440 till the car 

Of the late moon, like a sick matron wan, 

To journey from the misty east began. — Witch, LI. 

1441 the wave 

Which like a toil-worn labourer leaps to shore 

To meet the kisses of the flowrets there. — D. W. II. 109. 

1442 ThcT works of faith and slavery, so vast, 
So sumptuous, yet withal so perishing ! 

Even as the corpse that rests beneath their wall. 

—D. W. II. 314. 

1443 and earth. 

Even as a child beneath its mother's love 

Is strengthened in all excellence, and grows 

Fairer and nobler with each passing year. — D. W. II. 326. 



138 

1444 and that tall flower that wets 
Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth — 
Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears, 
When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears. 

— Question, II, 

1445 And like a dying lady, lean and pale, « 
Who totters forth, wrapt in a gauzy veil, 

Out of her chamber, led by the insane 

And feeble wanderings of her fading brain, 

The moon arose up in the murky east, — Waning Moon. 

1446 A star has fallen upon the earth, 

Like an angelic spirit pent 

In a form of mortal birth, — Prol. Hell. 196. 

1447 the dew 

Lay on its spotted leaves like tears too true — Zucca, VI. 

1448 Making the wintry world appear 

Like one on whom thou smilest, dear. — To Jane, Invitation, 19. 



Natural Phenomena to Animals — Art Products to 
Animals, and Vice Versa. 



1449 Higher and higher still 

Their [sc. waves] fierce necks writhed beneath the tempest's 

scourge, 
Like serpents struggling in a vulture's grasp. 

—Alast. 323. 

1450 The glaciers creep 
Like snakes that watch their prey, from their far fountains 
Slow, rolling on : — Mont Blanc. 

1451 That land is like an eagle, whose young gaze 
Feeds on the noon-tide beam, whose golden plume 
Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze 

Of sun-rise gleams when Earth is wrapt in gloom : 

~L. d- C. XL xxiii. 

) 452 And he tamed fire which like some beast of prey 
Most terrible but lovely, pla3'ed beneath 
The frown of man. — Prom. II. iv. 66. 

1453 heaven's utmost deep 
Gives up her stars, and like a flock of sheep 

They pass before his eyes, are numbered, and roll on. 

—Prom. IV. 418. 

1454 And none ever trembled and panted with liliss, 
In the garden, the field, or the wilderness, 

Like the doe in the noon-tide with love's sweet want 

As the companionless Sensitive Plant. — Sens. P. I. 9, 



139 

1455 All loatiiliest weeds began to grow, 

Wliose coarse leaves were splashed with many a speck, 
Like the water-snake's belly and the toad's back. 

—Sem. P. III. 51. 

1456 And at its outlet flags . 

Dammed it up with roots knotted like water-snakes. 

—Sens. P. III. 72. 

1457 And a northern whirlwind, wandering about 
Like a wolf that had smelt a dead child out, 

—Sem. P. III. 110. 

1458 Who crowd [•«■. tigers] side by side, and have driven, like a crank, 
The deep grip of their claws thiough the vibrating plank 

— Vision of Sea, 43. 

1459 Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow 
Her clarion . 

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed iu air) — West Wind, I. 

1460 With wings folded I rest on my airy nest 

As still as a brooding dove. — Cloud, 43. 

1461 And I laugh to see them [.sc. stars] whirl and flee 

Like a swarm of golden bees. — Cloud, 53. 

1462 Higher still and higher 

From the earth thou springest 
Like a cloud of fire, —Ski/lark, 6. 

^463 Like a star of heaven 

In the broad day-light 
Thou art unseen, — Skylark, 18. 

1464 How glorious it will be to see her Majesty 

her petticoats 
Streaming like ... 

or a war steed's mane. 

—CEd. Tyr. II. i. 95. 

1465 Streaming like . . 

or a cow's tail. — (Ed. Tyr. II. i. 95. 

1466 And palisades of tusks, sharp as a bayonet. 

—(Ed. Tyr. II. i. 144. 

1467 Our bark is as an albatross, whose nest 

Is a far Eden in the purple East ; — Epips. 416. 

1468 The earth doth like a snake renew 

Her winter weeds outworn. — Hell. 1062. 

1469 When the exulting elements in scorn 

... lay 
Sleeping in beauty on their mangled prey 
As panthers sleep ; — Letter to M. G. 40. 

1470 Couched on the fountain like a panther tame. 
One of the twain at Evan's feet that sat, 



In joyous expectation lay tlie boat. — Witch, XXXIV. 



140 



1471 And there its fniit lay like a sleeping lizard 

Under the shadows — Unfin. Drama, 205. 

1472 The splendour winged worlds disperse 



Liiie wild doves scattered. 

1473 but 'tis sleeping fast 

Like a beast unconscious of its tether. 



1474 And the young and dewy dawn, 
Bold as an unhunted fawn, 
Up the windless heaveii is gone — 
Laugh — for ambushed in the day 
Clouds and whirlwinds watch their prey. 

1475 We paused amid the pines that stood 

Tortured by storms to shapes as rude 
As serpents interlaced 

1476 She left me at the silent time 
When the moon had ceased to climb 
The azure path of heaven's steep. 
And like an albatross asleep, 
Balanced on her wings of light 
Hovered in the purple night. 
Ere she sought her ocean nest 
In the chambers of the West. — 



-Prol Hell. 54. 
— Serchio, 5. 

— Insecurity. 
— To Jane, Recoil. III. 



-Lines in Bay of Lerici, I. 



SIMILES OF SWIFTNESS, CHANGE AND 
EVANESCENCE. 



1477 And felt the boat speed o'er the tranquil sea 

Like a torn cloud before the hurricane. — Alasf. 314. 

1478 As one that in a silver vision floats 
Obedient to the sweep of odorous winds 
Upon resplendent clouds, so rapidly 
Along the dark and ruffled waters fled 

The straining boat. — Alasf. 316. 

1479 The little boat 
Still fled before the storm ; still fled, like foam 

Down the steep cataracts of a wintry river ; — Alasf. 344. 

1480 the woven leaves 
Make net-work of the dark blue light of day, 
And the night's noon-tide clearness, mutable 

As shapes in the weird clouds. — Alasf. 445. 

1481 But thou art fled 
Like some frail exhalation ; which the dawn 

Robes in its golden beams, — — Alasf. 686. 



141 

1482 We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon ; 
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, 
Streaking the darkness radiantly ! yet soon — 

Night closes round, and they are lost for ever. — Mutahility, 1. 

1483 Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings 
Give various response to each varying blast, 
To whose frail frame no second motion brings 

One mood or modulation like the last. — Mutahility, 5. 

1484 When all that we know, or feel, or see, 

Shall pass like an unreal mystery — There is no work, 17. 

1485 For the very spirit fails, 
Driven like a homeless cloud from steep to steep 

That vanishes among the viewless gales. — Mont Blanc, 57. 

1486 The race 
Of man flies far in dread ; his work and dwelling 
Vanish, like smoke before the tempest's stream. 
And their place is not known. — Mont Blajj 



1487 The vast clouds fled. 
Countless and swift as leaves on autumn's tempest shed. 

—L. tt- C. I. iv. 

1488 The pallid semicircle of the moon 
Past on in slow and moving majesty ; 

Its upper horn arrayed in mists, which soon 

But slowly fled, like dew beneath the beams of noon. 

- L. ct- C. I. V. 

1489 Even like a bark, which from a chasm of mountains, 
Dark, vast, and overhanging, on a river 

Which there collects the strength of all its fountains, 

Comes forth, whilst with the speed its frame doth quiver. 

Sails, oars, and stream, tending to one endeavour ; 

So from that chasm of light a winged Form 

On all the winds of heaven approacliing ever 

Floated, dilating as it came : the storm 

Pursued it with fierce blasts, and lightnings swift and warm. 

—L. d- C. I. vii. 

1490 Then soar — as swift as smoke from volcano springs. 

—L. d- C. I. xiii. 

1491 I looked, and we were sailing pleasantly, 

Swift as a cloud between the sea and sky, — L. A: C. I. xlvii. 

1492 Even as a storm let down beneath the ray 
Of the still moon, my spirit onward past. 
Beneath truth's steady beams upon its tumult cast. 

—L. cL C. II. xii. 

1493 In sudden panic those false murderers fled, 

Like insect tribes before the northern gale : — L. cb G. V. viii. 

1494 And all the shapes of this grand scenery shifted 
Like restless clouds before the steadfast sun 

— L. A: C. V. xviii. 



142 

1495 The chains of earth like mist melted away, 



-L. cL' C. V. xxxvii. 



1496 .Sudden, as when the moonrise makes appear 

Strange clouds in the east ; — L. ii- C. V. xl. 

1497 The third Image was drest 

In white wings swift as clouds in winter skies, — L. d- G. V. 1. 

1498 [.sc. wisdom] swift and strong 

As new-tiedged Eagles, beautiful and young. 
That float among tlae blinding beams of morning. 

—L. c£- C. V. li. 1. 

1499 The Fiend-God, when our charmed name he hear. 
Shall fade like shadow from his thousand fanes, 

—L. ct C. V. li. 6. 

1500 the while, 
Far overhead, ships from Propontis keep 

A killing rain of tire ; when the waves smile 

As sudden earthquakes light many a volcanic isle ; 

Thus sudden, — L. d; C. VI. vii. 

1501 and ever 
Our myriads, whom the swift bolt overthrew, 
Or the red sword, failed like a mountain river 
Wliich rushes forth in foam to sink in sands forever. 

—L. d, C. VI. xiv. 

1502 We spake no word, 
But like the vapour of the tempest tied 
Over the plain ; her dark hair was dispread 
Like the pine's locks upon the lingering blast ; 

— L. d: C. VI. xxi. 

1503 did seize a Tartar's sword, and spring 

Upon his horse, and swift as on the whirlwind's wing 
Have thou and I been borne beyond pursuer, 

—L. ct- C. VI. xx\/. 

1504 while tears pursued 

Each other down her fair and listening cheek 
Fast as the thoughts which fed them, — L. d; C. VII. ii. 

1505 Swift as an eagle stooping from the plain 
Of morning light, into some shadowy wood, 

He plunged through the green silence of the main 

-L. d.- a VII. x. 

1506 And I became at last even as a shade, 

1507 A smoke, a cloud on which the winds have preyed, 

1508 Till it be thin as air ; —L. d- C. VII. xxvi. 

1509 Opinion is more frail 
Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moon 
Even while we gaze, tho' it awhile avail 

To hide the orb of truth— —L. d; C. VIII. ix. 

1510 High temples fade like vapour — — L. d; C. VIII. xvi. 



143 

1511 She is my life, — I am but as the shade 

1512 Of her, — a smoke sent up from ashes, soon to fade. 

—L. <L' C. VIII. XXV. 

1513 This is the winter of the world ; — and here 
We die, even as the winds of Autumn fade, 
Expiring in the frore and foggy air. 

Behold, Spring comes, tho' we must pass, who made 
The promise of its birth, — even as the shade 

1514 Which from our death, as from a mountain, flings 

The futui'e, a broad sunrise ; — L. d- C. IX. xxv. 

1515 Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade ; 

— L. ct- C. XI. xxii. 

1516 Cythna sprung 
From her gigantic steed, who, like a shade 
Chased by the winds, those vacant streets among 

Fled tameless, — L. tt C. XII. xiii. 

1517 like gossamer, 
On the swift breath of morn, the vessel flew 



Till down that mighty stream dark, calm, and fleet 
Between a chasm of cedarn mountains riven, 
Chased by the thronging winds whose viewless feet 

1518 As swift as twinkling beams, had, under Heaven 
From woods and waves wild sounds and odours driven, 
The boat fled visibly — three nights and days, 

1519 Borne like a cloud thro' morn, and noon, and even, 

—L. (b C. XII. xxxii. 

1520 Morn, noon, and even, that boat of pearl outran 
The streams which bore it, like the arrowy cloud 

1521 Of tempest, or the speedier thought of man, 
Which flieth forth and cannot make abode, 

—L. cL- C. XII. XXXV. 

1522 On the fourth day, wild as a wind-wrought sea 
The stream became, and fast and faster bare 

The spirit-winged boat, — L. d- C. XII. xxxviii. 

1523 Like the swift moon . . . this glorious earth around, 
The charmed boat approached, and there its ha.ven found. 

—L. cfc C. XII. xli. 

1524 For ever now his health declined. 
Like some frail bark which cannot bear 

The impulse of an altered wind, — B. cfc H. 814. 

1525 And swift and swifter the notes came 

From my touch, that wandered like quick flame, 

—B. a> H. 1145. 

1526 for human things 

1527 Change even like the ocean and the wind, — B. tfc H. 1279. 

1528 Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart 

And come for some uncertain moments lent 

—H. I. B. IV. 



Ui 

1529 Thou uiireplenished lamp, whose narrow fire 
Is shaken by the wind, and on whose edge 
Devouring darkness hovers. Thou small flame, 
Which as a dying pulse rises and falls. 

Still flickerest up and down, how very soon 
Did not I feed thee, wouldst thou fail and be 

1530 As thou hadst never been. So wastes and sinks 
Even now, perhaps, the life that kindled mine, 
But that no power can fill with vital oil 

That broken lamp of flesh. —Cenci, III. ii. 8. 

1531 Both they and thou had vanished, like thin mist 

Unrolled on the morning wind. — Prom. I. 116. 

1532 And the triumphant storm did flee 
Like a conqueror swift and proud. 

Between, with many a captive cloud, — Prom. I. 710. 

1533 It [.sf. a Dream] has borne me here as fleet 

As Desire's lightning feet. — Prom. I. 733. 

1534 As over wide dominions 

I sped, like some swift cloud that wings the wide air's 

wildernesses, — Prom. I. 763. 

1535 As suddenly 

Thou [-sf. Spring] comest as the memory of a dream, 

—Prom. II. i. 7. 

1536 Echoes, we : listen ! 

We cannot stay : 
As dew-stars glisten 

Then fade away — Prom. II. i. 166. 

1537 That their flight must be swifter than fire — Prom. II. iv. 4. 

1538 like sister-antelopes 

By one fair dam, snow-white and swift as wind, 
Nursed among lilies near a brimming stream 

— Prom. III. iii. 97. 

1539 Haste, oh, haste. 

As shades are chased, 
Trembling by day, from heaven's blue waste. 
We melt away, 

1540 Like dissolving spray. — Prom. IV. 21. 

1541 And your wings are soft and swift as Thought, 

—Prom. IV. 91. 

1542 Death, Chaos, and Night 
From the sound of our flight. 

Shall flee, like mist from a tempest's might. — Prom. IV. 144. 

1543 Vast beams like spokes of some invisible wheel 
Which whirl as the orb whirls, swifter than thought, 

—Prom. IV. 274. 

1 544 or some God 

Whose home was in a comet, passed, and cried. 
Be not ! And like my words they were no more. 

—Prom. IV. 316. 



14.5 

Ha ! ha ! the animation of delight 

Which wraps rae, like an atmosphere of light, 

1545 And bears me as a cloud is borne by its own wind 

—Prom. IV. 322. 

1546 The Earth. 

I hear : I am as a drop of dew that dies. — Prom. IV. 523. 

1547 Then the weeds 

Fled from the frost to the earth beneath. 
Their decay and sudden flight from frost 
Was but like the vanishing of a ghost. — Sena. Plant, III. 98. 

1548 sweet spirit, which I day by day, 

Have so long called my child, but which now fades away 

Like a rainbow, and I the fallen shower? — l'i.sio7i of Sea, 88. 

1549 Their unremaining gods and they 

Like a river roll away. — Ode to Heaven, 25. 

1550 Till from its station in the heaven of fame 
The spirit's whirlwind rapt it, and the ray 
Of the remotest sphere of living flame 
Which paves the void was from behind it flung 

As foam from a ship's swiftness. — Ode to Lib. I. 

1551 Thou huntress swifter than the moon — Ode to Lib. X. 

1552 When like heaven's sun girt by the exhalation 
of its own glorious light, thou didst arise, 
Chasing thy foes from nation unto nation 

Like shadows : —Ode to Lib. XI. 

1553 As summer clouds dissolve unburthened of their I'ain ; 

1554 As a far taper fades with fading night, 

1555 As a brief insect dies with dying day. 
My song, its pinions disarrayed of might. 

Drooped. —Ode to Lib. XIX. 

1556 Homeless she passed, like a cloud on the blast, 

—(Ed. Tyr. I. 246. 

1557 my loyal pigs. 
Now let your noses be as keen as beagles, 

Your steps as swift as greyhounds. — (Ed. Tyr. II. ii. 120. 

1558 As with no stain 

She faded, like a cloud which has outwept its rain 

— Adon. X. 

1559 Shall that alone which knows 
Be as a sword consumed before the sheath 

By sightless lightning —Adon. XX. 

1560 Swift as a Thought by the snake Memory stung, 
From her ambrosial rest the fading Splendour sprung. 

—Adon. XXII. 

1561 And like a sudden meteor, which outstrips 
The splendour-winged chariot of the sun, 

eclipse 
The armies of the golden stars, each one, — Cane. Adon. 34. 

10 



146 

1562 Worlds on worlds are rolling ever 

From creation to decay, 
Like the bubbles on a river 

Sparkling, bursting, borne away. — Hell. 197. 

1563 Swift as the radiant shapes of sleep 

From one whose dreams are Paradise 
Fly, when the fond wretch wakes to weep. 
And day peers forth with her blank eyes ; 
So fleet, so faint, so fair. 
The powers of earth and air 
Fled from the folding star of Bethlehem. — Hell. 225. 

1564 Like clouds, and like the shadows of the clouds, 

1565 Over the hills of Anatolia, 

Swift in wild troops the Tartar chivalry 

Sweep :— —Hell. 328. 

1566 And thaw their frost-work diadems like dew ; — Hell. 416. 

1567 The fleet which like a flock of clouds 

Chased by the wind, flies the insurgent banner. — Hell. 460. 

1568 And like loveliness panting with wild desire 

While it trembles with fear and delight ; 
Hesperus flies from awakening night, — Hell. 1036. 

1569 Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam 

Like wrecks of a dissolving dream — — Hell. 1064. 

1570 Though his life, day after day, 

Was failing like an unreplenished stream, — Prince Ath. I. 58. 

1571 The youth, as shadows on the grassy hill 
Outrun the winds that chase them, soon outran 

His teacher, — Prince Ath. II. 13. 

1572 How many a spirit then puts on the pinions 
Of fancy, and outstrips the lagging blast. 
And his own steps, and over wide dominions 
Sweeps in his dream-drawn chariot, far and fast, 

More fleet than storms — — Prince Ath. III. 16. 

1573 The Horse of Death tameless as wind 

Fled, —Mask, XXXIII. 

1574 tyrants would flee 

Like a dream's dim imagery ; — Mask, LII. 

1575 and everything beside 

Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade : — Witch, XII. 

1576 The boundless ocean like a drop of dew 
Will be consumed — the stubborn centre must 

1577 Be scattered like a cloud of summer dust 

— Witch, XXIII. 

1578 And ever down the prone vale like a cloud 

Upon a stream of wind, the pinnace went : — Witch, XLI. 



147 

1579 and the pale 
And heavy hue which shimber could extend 

Over its lips and eyes, as on the gale 
A rapid shadow from a slope of grass, 
Into the darkness of the stream did pass. — Witch, XLIII. 

1580 And then it winnowed the Elysian air 
Which ever hung about that lady bright, 

With its ajtherial vans — and speeding there. 
Like a star up the torrent of the night, 

1581 Or a swift eagle in the morning glare 

Breasting the whirlwind with impetuous flight. 
The pinnace oared by those enchanted wings 
Clove the fierce streams towards the upper springs. 

— Witch, XLV. 

1582 Circling the image of a shooting star, 
Even as a tiger on Hydaspe's banks 
Outspeeds the antelopes which speediest are. 

In her light boat : — Witch, LI. 

1583 With motion like the spirit of that wind 

Whose soft step deepens slumber, her light feet 
Passed through the peopled haunts of human kind, 

~ Witch, LX. 

1584 He fled like a shadow before its noon ; — Uiifin. Drama, 2. 

1585 until my dream become 
Like a child's legend on the tideless ^and. 
Which the first foam erases half, and half 

Leaves legible. — Unfin. Drama, 151. 

1586 .Swift as a spirit hastening to his task. 

Of glory and of good, the sun sprang forth 

Rejoicing in his splendour, — Triumph, 1. 

1587 and those 

Who lead it — fleet as shadows on the green, 

Outspeed the chariot, — Triumph, 138. 

1588 the chariot hath 
Passed over them — nor other trace I find 
But as of foam after the ocean's wrath 

Is spent upon the desert shore : — Triumph, 161. 

1589 And suddenly my brain became as sand 
Where the first wave had more than half erased 

The track of deer on desert Labrador ; — Triumph, 405. 

1590 And man, once fleeting o'er the transient scene 
Swift as an unremembered vision, stands 

Immortal upon earth : — D. W. II. 150. 

1591 The works of faith and slavery, so vast. 
So sumptuous, yet withal so perishing. 

Even as the corpse that rests beneath their wall. 

~D. W. II. 314. 

1592 The shadows with swift wings 
Speeded like thought upon the light of Heaven. 

—D. W. II. 322. 



148 

1593 The sweetness of the joy which made his breath 

Fail like the trances of the summer air, — Suiidet, 5. 

1594 My thoughts arise and fade in solitude, 

The verse that would invest them melts away 
Like moonlight in the heaven of spreading dav ; 

—Fra<jjn. Vol. 3, p. 406. 

1595 Till thi.s dreadful transport may 

Like a vapour fade away — Misery, X. 

1596 Then clouds from .sunbeams, antelopes from leopards, 

1597 And frowns and fears from thee 

1598 Would not more swiftly flee 

Then Celtic wolves from the Ausonian shepherds. 

— Ode to Najjles, 170. 

1599 And swifter thy step than the earthquake's tramp : 

— Liberty, III. 

1600 And ever changing like a joyless eye 

That finds no object worth its constancy ? — To the Moon, 5. 

1601 Ah, fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed, 

1602 Or the death they bear, 

1603 The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove 

With the wings of care ; — From Arabic, II. 

1604 In whom love ever made 

Health like a heap of embers soon to fade. — To Emilia, II. 

1605 I love Love — though he has wings, 

And like light can flee, — Song, VIII. 

1606 Swifter far than summer \s flight, 

1607 Swifter far than youth's delight , 

1608 Swifter far tlian happy night. 

Art thou come and gone. — Remembrance, I. 

1609 Of that before whose bre.ith the universe 

Is as a print of dew. — Prol. Hell. 5. 

1610 A star has fallen upon the earth 

Swifter than the thunder fell 

To the heart of earth, ■ — Fragm. Hell. III. 

1611 The tempest of the . . . [incomplete] 

doth come, 
Swift as fire, —Serchio, 96. 

1612 Marks your creation rise as fast, as fair 

As perfect world -3 at the Creator's will. — To Byron. 

1613 I groM' 

Frail as a cloud whose (splendours) pale 
Under the evening's ever-changing glow : 

1614 I die like mist upon the gale, 

1615 And like a wave under the calm I fail. 

-^Fragm. Vol. 4, p. 119. 

1616 Even whilst like a forgotten moon tliou wanest ? 

— Fragm. Vol. 4, p. 121. 



149 

1617 That moment is gone forever, 

Like lightning that flashed and died, 

1618 Like a snovvflake upon the river, 

Like a sunbeam upon the tide 

1619 Which the dark shadows hide. — Lines, Vol. 4, p. 14S. 

1620 Man's brief and frail avithority 
Is powerless as the wind 

That passeth idly by. —Q. M. III. 220. 

1621 Aliasuerus fled 

Fast as the shapes of mingled shade and mist. 
That lurk in glens of a twilight grove, 

Flee from the morning beam — Q. M. VII. 268. 



SIMILES OF LOVE. 

1622 Love ! who to the hearts of wandering men 

Art as the calm to Ocean's weary waves. — L. d; C. VIII. xi. 

1623 That love, which none may bind, be free to fill 

The world, like light ; —L. cO G. VIII. xvi. 

1624 Virtue, and Hope, and Love, like light and Heaven, 
Surround the world. — — L. d- C. IX. xxiii. 

1625 and a light 

Of liquid tenderness like love, did rise 
From her whole frame, an atmosphere which quite 
Arrayed her in its beams, tremulous and soft and bright 

-L. d: C. XL V. 

16'2G The faintest stars are scarcely shorn 

Of their thin beams by that delusive morn 
Which sinks again in darkness, like the light 
Of early love, soon lost in total night 

1627 Be it love, light, harmony, 
Odour or the soul of all 

Which from heaven like dew doth fall, 

—Eug. Hills, 315. 

1628 And the love which heals all strife 
Circling, like the breath of life, 
All things in that sweet abode 

With its own mild brotherhood : — Eiig. Hills, 366. 

1629 the overpowermg light 

Of that immortal shape was shadowed o'er 
By love ; which, from his soft and flowing limbs. 
And passion-parted li^Ds and keen, faint eyes. 
Steamed forth like vaporous fire ; an atmosphere 
Which wrapt me in its all-dissolving power, 

1630 As the warm cether of the morning sun 

Wraps ere it drinks some cloud of wandering dew. 

—Prom. II. i. 71. 



150 

1631 In the depth of the deep 

Down, down. 

Like the spark nurst in embers, 
The last look Love remembers, 

A spell is treasured. — Prom. II. iii. 82.. 

1632 love like the atmosphere 
Of the sun's fire filling the living world, 

Burst from thee, and illumined, — /Vow. II. v. 26. 

1633 Common as light is love, 
And its familiar voice wearies not ever. 

1634 Like the wide heaven, the all-sustaining air. 

It makes the reptile equal to the God : — Prom. II. v. 40. 

1635 With love which is as fire, — Prom. III. iii. 15L 

1636 the impalpable thin air 
And the all-circling sunlight were transformed, 
As if the sense of love dissolved in them 

Had folded itself around the sphered world. 

—Prom. III. iv. 100. 

1637 And from beneath, around, within, above, 
Filling thy void annihilation, love 

Burst in like light on caves cloven bv the thunder-ball. 

— Prom. IV. 353. 

1638 And like a storm bursting its cloudy prison 
With thunder, and with whirlwind, has arisen 

Out of the lampless caves of unimagined being : 

— Prom.. IV. 376. 

1639 Which [.sc. love] over all his kind, as the sun's heaven 
Gliding o'er ocean, smooth, serene, and even 

Darting from starry depths radiance and life, doth move. 

—Prom. IV. 385„ 

1640 Man, oh, not men ! a chain of linked tliought. 
Of love and might to be divided not. 

Compelling the elements with adamantine stress 
As the sun rules, even with a tyrant's gaze 
The unquiet republic of the maze 

Of planets, struggling fierce towards heaven's free wilderness. 

—Prom. IV. 394. 

1641 The Moon. As in the soft and sweet eclipse 
When soul meets soul on lovers' lips, 

High hearts are calm, and brightest eyes are dull ; 

So, when thy shadow falls on me. 

Then am I mute and still, by thee 
Covered : of thy love. Orb most beautiful. 

Full, oh, too full. —Prom. IV. 450. 

1642 Like the polar Paradise, 

1643 Magnet-like of lovers' eyes : — Prom. IV. 465. 

1644 And the spring arose in that garden fair. 

Like the Spirit of Love, felt everywhere ; — Sens. P. I. 5^ 



151 

1645 For each one was interpenetrated 

With the light and odour its neighbour shed, 

Like young lovers whom youth and love make dear, 

Wrapped and filled by their mutual atmosphere. 

Sens. P. I. 56. 

1646 Whether that lady's gentle mind, 
No longer with the form combined 

Which scattered love, as stars do light, — Sens. P. Concl. 5. 

1647 the heaped waves behold 
The deep calm of blue heaven dilating above, 

And, like passions made still by the presence of love, 

Beneath the clear surface reflecting it slide 

Tremulous with soft influence ; — Vision of Sea, 128. 

1648 Love is like understanding, that grows bright. 
Gazing on many truths ; 'tis like thy light. 

Imagination, which from earth and sky — Epips. 161. 

1649 With flowers as soft as thoughts of budding love ; — Epips. 328. 

but true love never yet 
Was thus constrained ; it overleaps all fence 

1650 Like lightning, with invisible violence 

1651 Piercing its continents ; like Heaven's free breath, 

1652 Which he who grasps can hold not ; liker Death 
Who rides upon a thought, and makes his way 
Through temple, tower, and palace, and the array 

Of arms : — Epips. 397. 

1653 One passion in twin hearts, which grows and grew 
Till like two meteors of expanding flame, 

Those spheres instinct with it become the same, 
Touch, mingle, are transfigured ; ever still 
Burning, yet ever inconsumable : 
In one another's substance finding food, 

1654 Like flames too pure and light and unimbued 
To nourish their bright lives with baser prey. 

Which point to Heaven and cannot pass away : — Epips. 575. 

1655 Fi-ee love has this different from gold and clay, 
That to divide is not to take away 

Like ocean which the general north wind breaks 
Into ten thousand waves, and each one makes 

1656 A mirror of the moon — like some great glass 
Which did distort whatever form might pass, 
Dashed into fragments by a playful child. 
Which then reflects its eyes and forehead mild ; 
Giving for one which it could not express, 

A thousand images of loveliness. — Cane. Epips. 17. 

1657 Untamable and fleet and fierce as fire, — Cane. Epips. 147. 

1658 thou ever soarest 
Among the towers of men, and as soft air 

In spring, which moves the unawakened forest, 

Clothing with leaves its branches bare and bleak, 

Thou floatest among men — Prince Ath. II. iv. 1 



152 

1659 above 

One dream of Heaven smiles, like the eye of Love 

On the unquiet world : — Letter to M. O. 126. 

1660 And fed with love, like air and dew, 

1661 Its growth^ —To Const. II. 

1662 There is a warm and gentle atmosphere 

About the form of one we love, and thus 
As in a tender mist our spirits are 
Wrapt —Fragm. Vol. 4, p. 20. 



SIMILES OF DREAM. 

1663 like mist on breezes curled 

From my dim sleep a shadow was unfurled — L. db C. III. ii. 

1664 Talk with me 
Of that our land, whose wilds and floods, 
Barren and dark although they be, 
Were dearer than these chestnut woods : 
Those heathy paths, that inland stream, 
And the blue mountains, shapes which seem 

Like wrecks of childhood's sunny dream : — R. <£• H. 20. 

1665 Athens arose : a city such as vision 

Builds from the purple crags and silver towers 

Of battlemented cloud, as in derision 

Of kingliest masonry : — Ode to Lift. V. 

1666 As one enamoured is upborne in dream 
O'er lily-paven lakes 'mid silver mist. 

To wondrous music, so this shape might seem 

Partly to tread the waves with feet which kissed 

The dancing foam : — Triumph, 367. 

1667 Along a shelving bank of tui-f, which lay 
Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling 

Its green arms round the bosom of the stream. 

But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream 

— Question. 



SIMILES OF THOUGHT. 



1668 Soft and deliglitful thoughts did rest and hover 

Like shadows o'er my brain — L. <(.• C. I. xv. 

1669 And this beloved child then felt the sway 
Of my conceptions, gathering like a cloud 

The very wind on which it rolls away - L. <£• C. II. xxxi. 



153 

1670 Such are the thoughts wliich, like the fires that flare 
In storm -encompassed isles, we cherish yet 

In this dark ruin. — L. <(.■ C. VII. xxxvii. 

1671 What is this undistinguishable mist 

Of thoughts, which rise, like shadow after shadow, 

Darkening each other ? — Cenci, III. i. 170. 

1672 Obscurely through my brain, like shadows dim. 

Sweep awful thoughts, rapid and thick. — Prom. I. 146. 

1673 the thought 

Which pierces this dim universe like light. — Prom. II. iv. 40. 

1674 Drive my dead thoughts over the universe 

Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth — West Wind, V. 

1675 And his own thoughts, along that rugged way 
Pursued, like raging hounds, their father and their prey. 

—Aden. XXXI. 

1676 Earth and ocean. 
Space, and the isles of life or light that gem 
The sapphire floods of interstellar air, 
This firmament pavilioned upon chaos. 
With all its cressets of immortal fire, 
Whose outwall, bastioned impregnably 

Against the escape of boldest thoughts, repels them 

As Calpe the Atlantic clouds. — Hell. 769. 

1677 Thoughts after thoughts, unresting multitudes, 

1678 Were driven within him, by some secret power, 
Which bade them blaze, and live, and roll afar, 
Like lights and sounds from haunted tower to tower, 
O'er castled mountains borne, when tempest's war 
Is levied by the night-contending winds. 

And the pale dalesmen watch with eager ear 

—Prince Ath. I. 66. 

1679 As flowers beneath May's footsteps waken, 

1680 As stars from Night's loose hair are shaken, 

1681 As waves arise when loud winds call, 

Thoughts sprung where'er that step did fall. — Mask, XXXI. 

1682 How beautiful they were, how firm they stood 

Flecking the starry sky like woven pearl. — Fragm. Thoughts. 

1683 Thy deep eyes, a double Planet 

Gaze the wisest into madness 
With soft clear fire, — the winds that fan it 

Are those thoughts of tender gladness 
Wliich, like zephyrs on the billow 
Make thy gentle soul thy pillow — — Sophia, II. 

Ye gentle visitations of calm thought — 

1684 Moods like the memories of happiei- earth. 
Which come arraj'ed in thoughts of little worth, 

1685 Like stars in clouds by the weak winds enwrought. 
But that the clouds depart and stars remain, 
While they remain, and ye, alas, depart. 

— Fracjm. Vol. 4, p. 17. 



lo4 

1686 ye who sit 
Pavilioned on the radiance or the gloom 

Of mortal thought, which like an exhalation 

Steaming from earth, conceals the of heaven 

Which gave it birth —Prol. Hell. 9, 

1687 Until an envious wind crept by 

Like an unwelcome thought, 
Which from the mind's too faithful eye 

Blots one dear image out. — To Jane, 81. 



SIMILES OF NUMBER. 



1688 ■ the vast clouds fled 

Countless and swift as leaves on autumn's tempest shed. 

—L. cL- C. I. iv. 

1689 Winged and wan diseases, an array 

Numerous as leaves that strew the autumnal gale ; 

—L. d- C. I. xxix. 

1690 And multitudinous as the desert sand 

Borne on tlie storm, its millions shall advance, 

~L. .(■ C. II. xlv. 

1691 those millions swept 

Like waves before the tempest — — L. d- C. VII. iii. 

1692 their throngs did make 
Behind the steed, a chasm like waves in a ship's wake 

—L. tt- C. X. iii. 

1693 Great people, as the sands shalt thou become, 

— L. .[■ C XI. xxiii. 

1694 Look, sister, where a troop of spirits gather. 

Like flocks of clouds in spring's delightful weather. 

Thronging in the blue air ! — Prom. I. 664. 

1695 And see ! more come, 
Like fountain-vapours when the winds are dumb. 
That climb up the ravine in scattered lines. 

— Prom, I. 666. 

Four hundred thousand Moslems from the limits 
Of utmost Asia, irresistibly 

1696 Throng like full clouds at the Sirocco's cry ; 

1697 But not like them to weep their strength in tears. 

—Hell. 275. 

1698 The (Grecian fleet 

hung 
As multitudinous on the ocean line 
As cranes upon the cloudless Thracian wind — Hell. 477. 

1699 And when the windless snow descendsd thicker 

Than autumn leaves — Witch, XXX. 



J 55 

1700 And o'er its gentle countenance did play 

The busy dreams as thick as summer flies. — Witrh, XL. 

1701 And as the day grew hot, methought I saw 
A glassy vapour dancing on the pool, 

And on it little quaint and filmy shapes. 
With dizzy motion, wheel and rise and fall, 
Like clouds of gnats with perfect lineaments 

— Unfiii. Drama, 234. 

1702 and the crowd divided 

Like waves before an admiral's prow. — Chas. I. 1. 133. 

1703 and a great stream 
Of people there was hurrying to and fro. 

Numerous as gnats upon the evening gleam. — Triumph, 44. 

1704 He made one of the multitude, and so 

Was borne amid the crowd, as through the sky 

One of the million leaves of summer's bier ; — Triumph, 49. 

1705 And as I gazed, methought that in the way 
The throng gi-ew wilder, as the woods of June 
When the south wind shakes the extinguished day, 

— Triumph, 74. 

1706 And saw like clouds upon the thunder blast 
The million with fierce song and maniac dance 

Raging around — — Triumph, 109. 

1707 But all like bubbles on an eddying flood 
Fell into the same track at last, and were 

Borne onward — — Triumph, 458. 

iTOQ l^'^ ^^^^ small gnats or flies, as thick as mist 

1710 I ^" evening marshes, — Triumph, 508. 

1711 each one 

Of that great crowd sent forth incessantly 

These shadows, numerous as the dead leaves blown 

In autumn evening from a poplar tree. — Triumph, 528. 

1712 The thronging thousands, to a passing view 

Seemed like an ant-hill's citizens. — Q. M. II. 101. 



LIFE. 

I was born in Toronto, Canada, on March 17, 1871. I received 
my early education at Upper Canada College, and matriculated at 
the University of Toronto in 1887, where, with the intermission of 
a year, I remained until the spring of 1892. In that year I graduated 
with the Governor-General's medal in Modern Languages. For the 
three following years I taught Modern Languages at Upper Canada 
College, at the same time working under the general direction of Dr. 
Bright, In the autumn of 1895 I entered the Johns Hopkins 
University, where I followed courses in English, German and French. 
In January, 1896, I was appointed Scholar in the Department of 
English, and Fellow in June of the same year. I have studied under 
Dr. Bright, Dr. Brown, Dr. Wood, Dr. Menger and Dr. de Hahn, 
to all of whom I desire to express my gratitude. 

To Dr. Bright, especially, I wish to convey my warm apprecia- 
tion of the benefit I have received from his stimulating and sympa- 
thetic direction of my work. 

Pelham Edgar. 



?«) 1900 



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